Never In a Lifetime
by Unikornie
Summary: Bulma and Vegeta story, AU. What happens when they are alone, for months? Will they kill each other? Is that a tail? Rated M for maturity.
1. Chapter 1

Disclaimer - I do not own DBZ.

Newly updated... :)

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"What the hell is this!?" Bulma screeched as she skidded to a halt in the back yard. She had been in the middle of a project when she heard the explosion. Leaping from her chair in surprise, holding her chest to try to get her heart to beat normally, the unexpected sound had almost made her fell over from shock, but she had a sinking suspicion what was the cause.

She ran through the doors of her lab and rounded the house to the back yard. Anger and rage building as she took in the sight before her, there was Vegeta. She had known he would be culprit, as anything exciting happening at Capsule Corp. these days was because of him. Or so she heard her staff say at several occasions. At this current exciting encounter Vegeta was standing outside of the Gravity Simulator kicking it with all his might as the entire machine was engulfed in flames, again!

He only stopped when she ran up to him and started putting out the fire with a fire extinguisher, house bots flying over to assist. "What did you do?" she asked with an accusatory tone, slamming the empty fire extinguisher on the ground. "Do you have any idea how long it took me to build this?!" she screeched. Vegetal folded his arms and snorted at her. "I should have known a week human woman wouldn't be able to build anything to withstand my strength." He said arrogantly. "Week human woman…" she seethed. "Why you unappreciative, over grown…" she picked up the fire extinguisher and threw it at him as hard as she could.

Vegeta was caught off guard by the projectile and almost didn't move out of the way, she never threw anything at him before. He watched it go by shocked that she would have the nerve to even attempt to harm him. He turned his glare back on her, trying to intimate her with his hard stare "Why you..." he advanced on her, "how dare you!"

"How dare I?" She echoed, holding her ground. "You purposefully blew up my machine!" She screamed her accusation. "How dare you!" She added while putting and emphasis on word 'you', while poking him in the chest with her finger.

Vegetal stood his ground, although he was just her height, he still seemed to be able to look down on her, or anyone for that matter. "Careful." He warned. "Or what?" She taunted. "You gonna kill me?" He growled in response, "I have half a mind to!" She was really starting to push her luck and he was already angry that the Gravity simulator didn't with stand his power, again.

"Go ahead; kill me, then who would build this for you?" She asked gesturing to her destroyed gravity simulator. "I am better off without it!" He shot back. "Oh? You can just go anywhere and change how high your gravity is? Just go next door and get energy reflecting bots? Just go to the corner store and find those weighted cloths you ware?" She said, folding her arms and raising her nose into the air. "You can't do anything without me." She stated arrogantly.

"What…." Vegeta was about to retort when he was cut off by Bulma's mother. "You should just kiss and make up; things would be much easier if you did." Bulma looked at her mother in outrage, "I would never!" She seethed stomping her foot and balling her fists. "Anyone who acts like they own the planet is not someone I find attractive." She shot at her mother disgustedly. Vegeta gave her a smirk, "says the woman who watches me train from the kitchen window."

Bulma turned to face him outraged. He stood there, the perfect picture of arrogance with his trade mark smirk, and he arms folded. He was still looking down on her as if to remind her that she would never compare. Oh that was it, Bulma couldn't take it anymore. She took two steps forward and slapped him. He frowned at her, but didn't move. She quickly retracted her hand and cradled it. She had to admit, that wasn't smartest move. Vegeta gently took her arm and inspected her hand, it was already bruising. "I should blast you for that disrespect." He said calmly as he looked her hand over. "Let the pain you're in be a lesson to you, never strike me again." He stated with a promise of pain behind his words. He gave a hard stare, then released her hand and walked away.

Bulma wanted to cry, in anger, pain, and frustration. This was the third time this month alone he destroyed the Gravity simulator and she couldn't keep repairing it. There had to be a way to reinforce it so that it could withstand the punishment that Vegeta put it through. Unfortunately, she didn't know what that was, or when the next time she was going to be able to actually do any work because she might have broken her hand on Vegeta's face.

She frowned inspecting her hand closer. It was swelling and the burse that had formed was starting to spread. "Yep, probably broken." She said out loud to herself. That should teach her for thinking she can do anything about him. The only person who could do anything about him was Goku, but he refused saying, "c'mon Bulma, Vegeta's one of the good guys. Sure he's a little rough around the edges, but you get used to him." He would then laugh and leave it at that.

She couldn't even understand why he had to live here anyway. He should go live with Goku, wouldn't he be happier there, after all they could fight all the time and then he would be out of her hair forever. But no, he refused to go anywhere else. Instead, he continued to break her machines, and the best one's she ever build too, all for him and the thanks she got was to constantly repair one of the world's greatest inventions. She stomped her food and screamed to herself in her lab, she was so angry that she could kill someone. She sighed in defeat, taking a seat in her lab chair. He seems to always have the upper hand. There had to be something she could do about that.

The pain in her hand was starting to become unbearable. Bulma searched for something that would help relieve the pain. Failing, she sunk back into her chair and inspected her hand a little closer. She defiantly broke something, a couple of fingers, and probably something in her hand she guessed by the look of the burse that was getting darker and darker, the bruise was even moving up her hand to her wrist. She frowned, that meant her wrist might be broken too.

She needed to get to a doctor. She got up and left the lab and went outside, she pulled her capsule from her pocket that housed her air car and stared at it. She couldn't drive, not with her hand in the condition it was in. Someone was going to have to take her. She turned back to the house with the intent on finding her parents to take her instead. If she ignored her hand and the pain too much longer the adrenaline would ware off and the pain would become unbearable, not the mention how it could heal badly.

She walked into the house calling for her parents. "Mom? Dad? Where are you?" She walked into the kitchen where her mother spent a good portion of her time only to come up empty. So she went in search of her father. She headed straight for his lab, but he wasn't there either. "Where'd they go?" She asked herself allowed walking back into the main building. If they weren't here, they had to have gone out and not tell her. This wasn't uncommon; they didn't always tell everyone where they were going. She looked at the phone in the kitchen. She could call, but that would mean it would take time for them to get home. She really needed to get to the doctor's office now. She sighed and looked out the sliding glass door to the back yard; Vegeta was training in the yard, with the absence of his gravity simulator. He always waited for her to fix it and knew it was inevitable that she would, otherwise he would drive her insane until she did. She wished she could just ignore his constant badgering and complaining, but he just annoys the hell out of her until finally she gives in just to shut him up.

She stood watching him for a little while debating with herself. She could either wait for her parents, or she could just go ask Vegeta to take her. She narrowed her eyes at him, it was his fault anyway, and he should be responsible for helping her. Finely, making up her mind, Bulma headed for the door. She slide the door open and walked outside. "Vegeta?" She calls as she approaches him; she wasn't surprised when he didn't pause in his movements, but gave a grunt in reply. "I think I broke my hand." She says, looking at it again.

"Humph, serves your right." He said, still not pausing. Bulma sighed, she forgot that she actually had to spell things out for him; he wasn't very good at interpreting implications. "Well, I need to go to the doctor." She said, Vegeta paused and looked at her. "And? Why would I care?" He asked. She sighed again as dramatically as she could, "I need you to take me, my parents aren't here and I can't drive with my hand like this." He stopped and turned to her fully. "You are not serious?" He said, folding his arms and scowling at her. "You strike me of your own will, without even thinking or realizing the repercussion, in the process, injure yourself, and then expect me to take you to be healed?" He growled out. She put her hand on her hip while still nursing her injured one. "No, it's your fault that I am in this situation in the first place, and I wouldn't ask you if I could do it myself, and my parents were home!" She was starting to shout. "But if you don't take me then I won't fix your gravity simulator and then you will have to train like that for the rest of your life!" She gestured to the yard implicate her point. He frowned. "What?" He snapped. "Do you forget that your father is able to repair my Gravity chamber?" She frowned. "Not with the recent modifications that I put in it, he hasn't worked on that thing in months, I mean, he could try, but..." She trailed off, folding her arms. He gave her a glare and clinched his fists at his sides. He didn't dare move lest he blast her to oblivion. He knew that if he did that, then the Doctor was sure to refuse helping him, and if the woman was right, he wouldn't be able to help him anyway, best not take the chance, he had to get stronger, no matter the cost.

He stood there, contemplating his next move. Finally he growled at her, he turned his head to the side, "Fine!" He snapped, while walking up to her, and unceremoniously plucks her from the ground and tosses her over his shoulder. "Which way?" he demands as he rises into the air. "Do you have to carry me like this?" She screeches as he starts to rise into the air, "which way?" he repeats, giving up she points in the direction of the hospital, "that way, East!" Of course this would be the outcome, what was she expecting, Him to drive her to the hospital? She should have known better.

The entire visit took a little over an hour, and Vegeta almost killed a man in the waiting room while Bulma was getting her cast fitted. Thankfully she was able to intervene before that happened and dragged him out. They were now standing in front of the hospital, Bulma was adjusting the sling on her arm, and getting ready for Vegeta to sling her over his shoulder again, just as he turned to do so he paused and looked down at her arm. He picked it up gently and inspected the white cast that the doctor had put on it. "What is this? "He asked curiously. Bulma gave a small smile, she forgets sometimes that he wasn't from this planet and some of the things they did probably seemed strange to him. "It's a cast." She explained. "They reset the bone and then put a cast on it to keep it in place so that it will heal right." She said. "You have to keep it on for 6 weeks, for worse breaks it's more." She said frowning at it. "I wish I had something that would make it heal faster."

"The regeneration tanks on Frieza's ship would have done the trick, after setting the bone of course." He replied as he lifted her over his shoulder. She screeched at him and pounded his back as he took to the air. "Do you have to carry me like a sack of potatoes?" She shouted. It was not a question. He didn't respond.

"Hey do you know anything about those regeneration tanks?" She asked as they flew towards Capsule corp. she couldn't believe she didn't think about that herself. He could heal so much faster when he blew himself up in the gravity simulator. "Not really, I only know that they are filled with a synthetic solution that has traces of DNA to assist in rapid healing. It has the ability to entice the cells in the body to heal." He said. Bulma sighed, oh how she would love to get her hands on this technology. Maybe one day she could get him to take to her to space to one of Frieza's old bases so she could either get one, or hack the system for the schematics.

That brought her to the idea that she might be able to get them from his old space pod, well not his, but either Raditz or Nappa's. She still has those hidden away somewhere, she could salvage some of the information and technology; maybe it had its own memory bank since they were used from birth for conditioning. "Hey Vegeta, would your old space pod have any information or connection to Frieza's network?" She asked. He touched down in the front yard of Capsule Corp. and put her back on her feet. "No, why?" He asked, walking into the house. He went to the fridge in search of something to eat. Bulma followed him into the kitchen and activated the kitchen bot to get dinner started, he could have a snack now, but he will be starving again shortly.

"Well you mentioned the regeneration tanks and I wondered if the old space pods you used to travel in would have that in its system, or some way for me to hack into Frieza's system." He frowned and thought that over for a moment. "First, those pods don't have any info other then the programming of the pod, and historical educational information of our race. Second, it was never connected to Frieza's mainframe." He said. "Really? Saiyan historical information?" She asked, her interests peaked. "But why?" He sat at the table snacking on some salad while he waited for his dinner, and Bulma brewed a cup of coffee. "Saiyan's have the same pod from the time they are born, it's how we travel anywhere. When in hyper sleep during travel, we are fed information of our race and planet for educational purposes, as well as basic fighting technique and conditioning."

"Oh, their isolated." She sighed. "I was hoping I might be able to get the schematics for a regeneration tank and build on here." She said, "It would be useful, especially with the way you train." She said, as an afterthought.

"How are you going to repair my gravity room with your arm injured like that?" He asked. She signed, "My dad will have to do it until it heals, which means I will have to supervise." He shook his head, he was done spending time with her. The amount of time he was with her was too much already, and he had training to do. "Just make sure he gets it done today!" He snapped and he walked out, dinner will be ready soon, but he would wait until everyone was asleep, he had had enough exposure to humans for one day.

Now that his Gravity simulator was out of commission, He wasn't going to be able to train properly on his own. He needed to find someone to pummel, and who better to pummel then a clown. He smirked as he rose into the air, and sped off in the direction of the mountains.

Six weeks came and went, and Bulma couldn't be happier to be separated from the god awful cast. She walked into the house with her new manicured nails and waved them around. She felt so good that she could finally use her hand again and let her arm breath! She moved and twisted her wrist; it was still sore but overall much better. She walked into the kitchen and poured herself a glass of water as Vegeta walked in to do the same. "Hay Vegeta?, Look!" She said, waving her arm around. She was so excited to finally have her arm back that she forgot that he always seemed to put a damper on her good mood. "Humph, good now you can finally get back to being useful around here and fix those droids." He snapped as he walked through the kitchen and to the Gravity simulator. "Whatever you jerk! You can't ruin my good mood!" She called after him, happily. "But it will feel good to get back into my lab." She said, smiling. She took her cup of coffee and headed straight for her lab waving to her mother on her way out. Her mother giggled and waved back. "Oh I just love it when she's in such a good mood." Bulma's mother sighed happily.

In the lab, Bulma was in the process of catching up on some of her work when she heard an all too familiar explosion Vegeta's voice was heard soon after, "Woman!" He shouted, Bulma growled and slammed her hand on her desk, she hadn't even been able to get started on any of her other projects, and Vegeta already has broken the GR again! "Of course..." she said, turning to face the angry Saiyan's he walked in still shouting for her.

"Woman, that damn sorry excuse for a machine is broken again!" She folded her arms. "Stop breaking it!" She shouted. He growled at her, "I wouldn't break it if it wasn't so sloppily made!" He shouted back at her. "What? Sloppy!" She took a step forward. "I'll have you know that capsule Corp. Machines are made of the highest quality in the world!" How dare he call her work sloppy? "Not from where I'm standing, anything as breakable as that is sloppy." He said, smirking at her. Oh that does it. "Why don't you fix it your damn self then!" she shot back and turned back to her desk. "It would hardly be worth it with the weak materials that you pathetic humans use. I need something much superior." She turned around. "Superior, there isn't anything stronger then Graphenea, which is what it's made out of!" She shouted, turning to him and taking another step forward. "That, for your information, is the strongest material on earth!"

"Ha! That is nowhere near the quality or strength of Klangite, which is the strongest metal in the universe. I suggest you find some." He said, Bulma opened her mouth ready with a comeback when she paused. "Klangite?" She questioned, "Something stronger then Graphene?" She thought out loud, her argument forgotten. Vegeta frowned at her and folded his arms. "Are you saying that there are stronger metals in space?" She asked serious. "No." Vegeta replied, "But there is a planet that has stronger metals." He said. When she got inquisitive like this, he couldn't help but be curious about what she was thinking. "I wonder where." She thought out loud going to her computer. She searched all databases that she knew of, even the link she put in to the old space pods the Saiyan's used to get to Earth, but she came up empty.

Vegeta frowned at her as she turned to him and sighed. "Well it's not like I can't get any of that here." She shrugged and walked out of her lab with the intent of repairing the gravity room. Vegeta stared after her; did she just leave to do what he asked? All because he mentioned something that put her in scientific thought? He shook his head, she was just like Bardock.

Not that he had very much exposure to the scientist, but he would observe his father's encounters with him, and any time they would discuss anything, especially a new initiative or idea that was somewhat scientific, then he would let his thoughts carry him away, and back to his lab. Vegeta shook his head and walked out of the lab in search of food. If he couldn't train, he might as well get some substance for the energy that he was going to need for when she was done repairing his gravity room. It had better not take up too much time; he really needed to get back to his training if he was ever going to surpass Kakorott.

Bulma repaired the GR within record time. She was proud of how quickly she was able to get things back up and running, not that it was beyond her talents in the first place, but she acquired one of the other staff members to help her get things done. She was cleaning up just as Vegeta walked in to inspect her work. She dusted off her hands and cloths and headed out the door. "Go easy on her Vegeta, I'm not fixing it again for at least a week." She said as she walked out of the room. Vegeta ignored her and started entering in commands at the control panel. Once the door was closed he powered it up and began his training.

Bulma shook her head as she made her way back to the house to get back to her other projects that she seemed to always be interrupted from. She really needed to find a way to prioritize work better, or find someone who can do the updates, and simple repairs to the GR. She shook her head with a laugh at that, there are never any simple repairs to the GR. She just needed to come up with something, she was sure she would.

Just as she was about to close the door to her lab, she looked up and saw as the Gravity Room shake violently and then go up in smoke, the lights inside turned from the deep red, to the normal lighting of a room. She groaned as she leaned against the door. "Not again…" Vegeta came flying out of the machine and towards her lab.

Bulma just stood leaning against the door, he was doing this on purpose, he had to have been, She wasn't even able to think as he landed right in front of the door, she hadn't even had a chance to go inside. "It wasn't even five minutes." She whispered staring through Vegeta to the Gravity room, as if he wasn't standing right in front of her scowling at her. "Five minutes!" She screeched at him and made eye contact. "Are you freaking kidding me?! UGH!" She said, throwing her tools to the ground. "I am not fixing it!" she shouted at him and stormed into the house.

Vegeta followed her. "Woman, get back out there and fix my Gravity simulator, now!" He said demanded. Bulma screeched to a halt and turned on him. "I will not!" She said, "You need to learn to not over exert the equipment!" Her face was red, and the volume of her voice was reaching new heights. She turned away from him folding her arms. "You need to build things less weak!" He shot back. "Weak, Ha! I already told you, there is nothing stronger. Apparently you forgot because you have a brain of an ameba!" She shouted back. "What?" He said, advancing on her. "You heard me, you're an over grown monkey with the brain of an ameba!" She said, turning towards him. "Woman, you are over stepping your place." He said gruffly and quiet. Bulma scowled at him. "The only one over stepping their place here is you! You clearly have forgotten that you are the house guest here, and you constantly make demands and then break things for fun!" She said, "You have overstayed your welcome!" She shouted at him. "Get your weak ass back in that Gravity Chamber and repair it, now!" He demanded. "No!" "Woman…." he shook his fist at her. "Don't break it then it wouldn't need to be fixed." She said, sticking her nose into the air. "Make it stronger then it won't break!" he shot back.

"Children, children…" both turned their scowls on Dr. Brief, who walked into the kitchen, where they currently stood arguing. "I overheard your conversation from earlier and I think I have the perfect solution to this constant battle." He said, as he poured himself a cup of coffee. "Well, what is it old man." Vegeta demanded. "Ah yes..." he responded, pulling out his pack of cigarettes and lighting a new one off the one that was currently in his mouth. "Since we are at a stale mate with this gravity simulator issue." He began, "being that it needs to be stronger in order to withstand the treatment that Vegeta is putting it though, and at no fault of his own." He said, pointing his stare at Bulma, "That being said, we can't keep fixing the contraption every day." He said, now pointing his look at Vegeta. "Do you have a point?" Vegeta responded folding his arms. "Yes, always a response…" he mused, taking a sip of his coffee. "If there are stronger metals in space, then I suggest you go get them." Dr. Brief said taking another sip.

Vegeta frowned, "What?" Bulma said. She looked at Vegeta and then her father. "Be my guest." She said, and started to walk away. "Well, here's the thing." Her father continued as she turned to leave, stopping her in her tracks. "If we sent a whole crew out there, it would take years to get it all back. But if you two went together…" he paused.

Bulma turned around and glared at her father. "No way!" She was appalled that he would even suggest such a thing. "I am not going into space with Vegeta!" Vegeta didn't say anything, he just watched. To be honest, he didn't mind going back into space, the only issue he saw was spending so much time with this woman.

"Now dear…" Dr. Brief started. "It won't take too long, of course, I couldn't say how long as I don't know where this planet is, but it would be an opportunity for you to research a new metal, and the be the first to discover it," he encouraged, "were talking the possibility of a Nobel Prize!" He said. That stopped her dead in her tracks. Dr. Brief could see the wheels turning now. "Imagine what this could do for your reputation!" He pressed on. Bulma took a step back and folded her arms, one hand on her chin in deep thought. "Nobel prize huh?" She said, "Wouldn't that be something?" She said looking up dreamily, "Imagine me, the youngest, and for sure most beautiful woman to ever win the Nobel Prize!" She grinned in excitement. "Ha!" she said triumphantly as if she won already.

"Where is this planet Vegeta?" She asked excitedly. Vegeta frowned. "Haven't a clue." He said, turning to walk away. "What? Oh come on! You have to know!" Bulma said, following him, "You're the one who suggested it in the first place!" He stopped and turned to her. "I only stated that your metal was not the strongest and that there were others out there, not that I knew where it was." He said calmly.

Clearly this woman was letting things get to her head. "Your old space pod has a star map on it, do you know the name of the planet?" She asked, trying a different approach. "As if you could read that data." He said, still walking down the hall towards his room. "That shows how much you know, I already decoded it." She said, as they reached the door. He stopped and turned to look at her suspiciously. "Impossible." He said, turning to his room and opening the door. "Not impossible," she replied, "done." She said following him in. He stopped dead in his tracks and glared at her.

Bulma stopped at his glare and took a few steps back so she was out of his room. It would be best not to crowd him. "Oh come on!" She said, "Please just take a look?" He rolled his eyes at her and turned around. "If I am not mistaken…" he said, turning his head, "and I'm not, but I recall you wanting to have nothing to do with his idea." He said, retrieving a towel and a change of clothes. "Yeah, but that was before the mention of a noble prize! That's like... like…" she moved her hands trying to come up with a comparison. "Like reaching super Saiyan to a scientist!" She said, grinning in excitement.

Vegeta stopped in his tracks and frowned at her. That couldn't possibly be a good comparison. "Look, I know this doesn't mean anything to you, and I don't care, but what does mean something to you is training, I could build you a better, stronger and more capable Gravity Simulator then anything you have access to now. We could increase the amount of gravity that you could use, right now it's only at 300 times, we could go higher with a stronger metal. The only reason why it's not higher is because that amount of the gravity can compromise…."

"Done!" He said, cutting her off. He didn't want to hear any of this science mumbo jumbo, he just wanted to train, and train hard. Anything to get him to his goal, if he needed to go to space for a little while to get it done, then he would do it.

Bulma jumped into the air in triumph. "Yes! You won't regret this!" She said, turning to leave. "I seriously doubt that." He mumbled to himself as he closed the door. Just what he needed, more time with that damn woman.


	2. Chapter 2

Disclaimer - I do not own DBZ.

Updated :)

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Vegeta threw his empty bottle in a near trash bin and wiped his mouth with the back of his hand. The woman has been in full production of the ship. He growled to himself, it was taking much longer then he would like, and to make matters worse, she refused to fix the GR while she was building the space craft. "I can't do two things at once Vegeta, either you wait for a better simulator, or you don't get one." He scowled at the memory. Didn't she have lackeys to do things for her? She should be available for his needs at all times, that was why he stayed at Capsule Corp. in the first place. "Pathetic." He ground out to himself. He was the great all might Prince of all Saiyan's, and he was reduced to waiting for humans, weak ones at that. It disgusted him.

"You ok Vegeta?" Goku asked as he stood and stretched. Vegeta glanced at him, but ignored his question. And he was the worst of all, Vegeta thought to himself. Because the woman refused to fix his GR, and she was too much of an asset to kill, he had to lower himself to train with his rival. He closed his eyes, there was a reason he was waiting, and that reason outweighed everything else. He just had to be patient, which, as he knew, was not one of his greatest strengths. "Hello!" He could feel the clown in front of him and he growled at the annoyance, "You ok?" Goku asked again while waving his hand in front of Vegeta's face.

Without opening his eyes, he balled up his fist and punched Goku in the face. "Ow, ow, ow!" Goku staggered back a couple of paces holding his face as he whined. "Why'd you do that?" He mumbled. "Tch, let's get on with it." Vegeta replied, and he turned and headed for the mountains. "Ok Vegeta, if you wanna play it like that," Goku laughed as he scratched the back of his head. "Don't think I'll go easy on you." He said. "I wouldn't expect anything less." Vegeta replied with a smirk. Even if he was a lower class Saiyan, being able to fight with someone who understood that call of battle was exhilarating. He could feel his blood calling each time he started to warm up. It was the greatest feeling and yet his greatest regret. How he longed to finally claim his birthright and lead his people to glory.

This one person took his glory from him, attained the unreachable before him, and yet, here he was sparing with his enemy as if they were old war buddies. He no longer had anything, no people, no legacy, nothing, and yet he continued to be a step behind his rival, and yet forced to continue to use his strength to his advantage. How he wished he could just remove him completely, but they both knew that he never would, and landing on this miserable planet only made that more abundantly clear. He realized when he landed on this planet that he would be in contact with him, in fact, that was the reason he came. He needed to be close to him, to motivate himself to reach the legendary, and then to surpass him, and then end his miserable existence. That was his new destiny.

"That's it Dad!" Bulma exclaimed triumphantly. "Finally the plans are done." she unrolled the large paper out on the table of her lab. "What do you think?" She asked as she waited for her father to finish his observation of the plans. "I have to say that this is your best work yet." Dr Briefs praised, Bulma grinned.

They went into double checking the math of the specifications when a nervous young woman walked in to the lab, none other than the grumpy saiyan himself trailing behind her angrily. No doubt when Bulma sent her to collect him, he took his frustration out on the poor girl, and being as intimidating as he was, the staff was always quite cautious around him. They heard the stories of what he did when he first demanded that Dr Briefs build him the GR. He nearly destroyed all of capsule corp. in his rage when Dr. Briefs displayed hesitation as he considered if helping Vegeta would be helping earth or the enemy. Dr. Briefs finally relented when he started his princely temper tantrum, and word spread like wild fire. Everyone knew of him, and those who had seen him or interacted with him in any way talked about it as if it was some huge honor to be one of the few to actually be in the same room as him.

Thankfully, the lab workers were used to him and learned to ignore him and steer clear, but the rest of the staff had little to no exposure to him at all and so they were more skittish around the temperamental prince. "Miss Briefs?" the woman, Nancy, interrupted the pair as they discussed the specifications of the ship. "I brought Mr. Prince?" It came out like another question. They had started calling him Mr. Prince when the staff was too nervous to ever call him by his actual name, and since saiyan's didn't really have surnames they just used his title as his to make thing easier. Bulma turned and grinned at the girl. "Thanks a bunch Nancy, you can go, I don't need anything else." Nancy bolted from the room as fast as she could without running and Bulma laughed to herself, 'we all felt like that at one point or another around him.' She reminded herself.

"What do you want woman?" Vegeta grossed, clearly irritated to have been interrupted from what he was doing to be beckoned here. Bulma grinned in spite of his foul mood. "I finished the ship plans, we can start building tomorrow, and if we work round the clock we should be done in six to eight weeks." Vegeta regarded her silently. "Have a look." She said, gesturing to the plans on the table. Vegeta looked them over and had to admit that they were actually quite impressive, he would never tell her this of course.

The ship was almost bullet shaped, not round like the one that Goku was sent to Namek in. It had two engines on either side of it, and another in the back of the main ship's center. "This is all storage and engines space." She said, pointing to the left and right wings, "and this is the main hull, where we will live." She said pointing to the main ship area. She pulled back the first page to reveal another that was a magnified diagram of the ships center. "We have our rooms at the back of the ship, the pilot station, or bridge is here, elevated above the main floor. We will have all our supplies stored in capsules, including our appliances and everything else we need like the kitchen, my workstation, and anything else you would like to request." She explained. "If we use capsule to move everything around, this room can be multipurpose and you can train while I work." She said, grinning. She was obviously pleased with herself.

Vegeta took it all in, after what seemed like minutes, he finally spoke up. "How long will it take to get there with a ship this size?" He asked. She nodded, "based on the coordinates you gave me, and using the star maps on your space pod, the entire trip will take eighteen months." She said, "six months to arrive, and then six months to mine, and then six months to return. That is banking on not having any complications of any kind." Vegeta frowned, that's right she told him she decoded it, but was it just the start map or the entire database. "When did you translate the language on my space pod?" he feigned outrage. To be honest he would be impressed if she decoded the space map as well as the language all together, especially since there was more than just one language to translate. "Tch, like you cared about that thing anyway." She shot back, "I only decoded the space map. I'm still working on the languages that are stored there." She grinned at him suddenly. "Your native language is so fascinating, I have never heard anything like it, and I have been analyzing it since I took the ship after you landed." She frowned suddenly, "well it's not yours really, and it's that big burly guy who traveled with you. You left in yours after Goku…" She trailed off, not wanting to sour his mood anymore; it's not like he wasn't grumpy enough.

Vegeta frowned at the mention of his guardian. Of course his space pod was still here; he killed him before he ended up leaving earth after that clown defeated him. He wasn't sure how he felt about his legacy being translated and interpreted by humans; there was no way that they could truly understand the true nature of the saiyan race. He would need to think about what to do with it. Either let her continue to study the information there, or just destroy the damned thing and be done with it. Part of his wanted to keep it; it was the only thing he had left of his people, his race.

He was brought out of his thoughts when Bulma spoke up again. "Well anyway, it's a work in progress." Vegeta just shook his head slightly to clear it, and focused back on the task at hand, he would decide what to about the pod later. "This ship is too big." He finally said. Bulma frowned, "no it's not!" she protested, "it's the perfect size, if we make it any smaller we will be on top of each other." she gave him a disgusted look, "and you and I both know we don't want that." He scowled at her, and ignored her comment. "Get rid of the rooms, and add one bathing room, then shorten it, this room should also be smaller." She looked at it closer. "This will cut our trip time." He said. She frowned, shaking her head in reply. "Only by a month in both ways, that's not enough to justify taking out the rooms."

"We could just travel in a space pod, it would be more practical." He argued. "You need to be put into an induced sleep for that type of travel and I don't have any way of doing that." She protested, "Then use a sample of the gasses used in the space pod you salvaged to make it possible." He said. Bulma shook her head, "I already tried, there isn't any left in the space pod, and in order to use it I have to be able to duplicate it." He frowned. "That's not really my problem."

She folded her arms in anger, her face turning pink. "I spent two weeks designing this ship, and it's going to be built as is. I am not sleeping in the same room as you, and I am not making it smaller to cut two months off our trip, that's not practical at all!" She ground out with as much finality in her voice as she could muster. "Besides, how are you going to train if we are always bumping into each other?"

"I can't train in the condition it's in now!" He barked out, "if we included the space sleep then we wouldn't have to worry about all of this, we simply take off, land, get what we need, then leave." He explained, "Simple."

Bulma shook her head, "I designed this ship to accommodate both of us, see how the bridge is elevated, the ceiling is twelve feet high, and this allows you to be able to do your training comfortably over here, while I work over here." She said, pointing out the places that they both could be able to get work done. "And we won't be on top of each other at all."

"And how do you suppose I train when I can't use the gravity simulator in this ship?" she shook her head. "The gravity either gets turned off, or it can be at earth level only, I am not getting squashed like a pancake for you!" She shouted in outrage. He narrowed his eyes at her, "that was precisely my point!" she was so infuriating, and to think he was thinking of her well being. Why should he even care?

She grinned suddenly at him, ignoring his outburst giving Vegeta moment of confusion as to why the sudden mood swing. "While this was being designed, I also had this prototype made for you." She said placing something on top of the ship plans. "These are bands that go around your wrists, ankles and waist; they simulate the effects of high gravity, but only up to 250." She said off handedly. "It's not possible to go higher than that with these, they only add to the weight of your body to make you feel as if you are in higher gravity; they don't actually manipulate the gravity. There is a substance that I had been working on for another project, it doesn't really have a name yet, but it seemed to get heavier with the more pressure that was added by magnets, it's so cool!" she said with excitement, "but when I realized that I pushed it to the max and then did the calculations and its equivalent to the GR at 250 times earth's gravity." She said.

Vegeta picked one of the bands up and looked it over. It seemed to be similar to the wrist bands that Kakarot wore on his wrists. He wasn't interested in wearing something that looked similar, but if they could do what she said they could, this would be useful in the mean time. "It's only a prototype like I said, so you can test them out before we leave and I can have them manufactured for you, if they check out, so that you can train without killing me."

"How disappointing." He drawled with a sarcastic smirk. She glared at him, "you should say thank you once in a while you jerk!" He laughed at her as he picked up the prototype and left the room. He had enough exposure to her for one day. She truly got on his nerves with her constant need to talk. "Just press the blue button to activate it and the red one to deactivate. It's so simple even your feeble mind can comprehend it!" She was practically yelling at him as he left.

Once outside Vegeta strapped all of the bands on and then pressed the blue button. He instantly felt his body go heavy, which was, if he was honest with himself, a bit much after his day of training with Goku. After a good day of fighting he always felt like that, his muscles humming from the punishment he inflicted on them. To a Saiyan that was one of the best feelings in the world, an indication of getting stronger. He had to admit, to himself only; she was brilliant, he was slightly glad he didn't kill her on Namek, but only very slightly. If he let himself get too attached to her, then… well he didn't want to think of that. She was a resource, and nothing more, his mechanic.

He tested a few punches and kicks in the air. This would do nicely, he smirked to himself. At lease the clown didn't have a genius working for him, and he definitely believed that that gave him the upper hand.

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AN: Thanks for the reviews! I appreciate any and all feedback! Also, sorry if you received multiple notifications to the update of this chapter. I was having a little bit of an issue publishing it correctly. My apologies.


	3. Chapter 3

Disclaimer - I do not own DBZ.

I wanted to thank everyone who followed/ favorited my story. This is my first fan fic, and its really encouraging to see people interested in reading it. Even those of you who are reading but aren't adding it to the favorites, or following, I still appreciate you too! ;) Now, happy reading!

P.S. My husband let me know of some grammatical and spelling errors from the first two chapters, and I will be updating those soon, as well as this one too... He always lets me know after I happen to post, but hay, at least he said something right! :D Enjoy!

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It's always satisfying when gazing upon the glory of a product of your own creation, especially one of this magnitude. At least this is what Bulma thought. She was feeling high on life at the completion of her newest baby, and she briefly wondered if this was similar to the feeling of having a child, but then laughed it off just as quickly. She leaned on the metal railing on the upper balcony of the manufacturing warehouse that was located on Capsule corp. just for these types of creations.

She was in the process of trying to come up with a suitable name for the ship. Any ship should have a good name, something that would bring them luck. "Well look at that!" Bulma glanced to her right and smiled, "that's a big ship Bulma!" Goku said with a laugh. "Man, I wish I was going with you guys!" He said excitedly. "There's not enough room Goku, besides, what would Chi Chi think? Going space exploring while she is at home all alone with Gohan?" She turned fully to him and leaned against the railing. "You put her through hell when you were dead you know."

He frowned and shook his head. "I know, I don't mean to make her worry, but I can't help it." He pouted. Bulma snickered at him and turned back to the ship. "She is a beauty." Bulma finally agreed. "Just think. If I could go with you, it would be like the old days." Bulma grinned.

"Yeah, the old days." She missed that time sometimes, when all she cared about was finding the dragon balls and whishing for a lifetime of strawberries. She didn't know that during that time those types of wishes were trivial, but at that age, it was all she could think to do. Finding all the dragon balls was what she really wanted, the wish wasn't as important to her. When she met Goku, well that turned her world upside down.

She never thought that she would ever actually find them, but when they did, she was so excited! The only problem was that the wish was wasted on a pair of panties. She laughed out loud at the memory, she was so mad a Oolong, but now, it's just a funny memory. "What's so funny Bulma?" Goku asked. She waved him off, "just remembering the old days." She said. Now, she was going on a new adventure, with a new companion. She just hoped he didn't get sick of her and kill her before they made it back. Or there for that matter.

"Well, enough relaxing!" Bulma said, clapping her hands, "time to get packing! Come on Goku, you can help me with the heavy stuff." She said, waving him to follow her. "Okay!" Goku agreed. It was always best to agree with her whenever you could, or she got really scary, and Goku was not sure how to deal with that sometimes, but an angry Bulma we better than an angry Chi Chi, that was for sure.

She descended the stairs of the balcony and was on her way to the adjoining building that was Capsule Corp.'s main building, as well as her main living quarters. "Bulma!" She paused at the sound of her name and sighed. "What Yamcha?" She snapped as he approached. She knew it was only a matter of time, she just hopped that she was gone by the time he heard about her trip. "Are you seriously going into to space with Vageta?!" He was practically yelling at her, he face read with his anger and his fists clinched at his sides. She turned fully to him and glared at him with her arms folded. "What's it to you?" she snapped back. "That guy is bad news! I keep telling you this, but you keep him around, and now you're going on a year long trip with him? I can't believe that you didn't tell me this!"

"I didn't tell you because it's none of your business!" She shouted back at him. "We broke up!" she added. He took a step back and clutched his chest as if she just broke his heart all over again. "I thought we made up?" he replied, he faced scrunched up in pain. "No, you made up; I never agreed to get back together with you." She snapped. "You always do this, you just assume that because you apologized that we are back together, and I will admit, in the past I just went along with it, but not anymore!" She said forcefully. "We are and have been over; I have no intention of getting back together with you!"

"How can you say that?" Yamcha took a step towards her, hoping that if he could get her in his arms she would change her mind. She effectively side stepped him as he tried to reach for her. "Babe…" he started. "No!" She shouted at him. "Yamcha, I am tired of always having to convince you to come see me, I am tired of always having to find a new date to company functions because you were too busy getting drinks with the guys, or trying out for the baseball team… again!" She said, her eyes starting to tear as she finally expressing her feelings to him. "I always support you in everything you strive for but when I ask for a little support there is always a reason why I shouldn't do this or that or why you can't be there for me." She said, folding her arms tightly. She was concentrating hard not to let the tears fall. "I am not going to give you one hundred and ten percent of my life only to get only ten percent back. You want me available, but you never want to be available for Me." she said, she couldn't keep the tears in any more. "I am better off alone, at least I know what to expect."

"Bulma…" Yamcha was a loss of what to say. "It's not like that." He said softly as he reached for her again. "I said no!" She said jerking form him, "babe just… what the…"

Yamcha was effectively cut off when he was yanked back several feet. "When a woman says no, that is what I means you sorry excuse for a human." Vegeta snarled. "Ha! It's not like you care, you probably raped every woman you have ever been with you creepy bastard!"

Vegeta's look turned dark, the kind that told men that he was going to kill. "How dare you." He said with a deadly calm to his voice. He didn't say anything else as he grabbed him by the front of his shirt and started to punch Yamcha in the face. The blood started to flow from his nose on the first hit, and his face only got more gruesome from there.

"Vegeta!" Bulma screamed as she pulled on his arm and tried to stop him. "Stop it! You'll kill him!"

Vegeta dropped Yamcha and ground his boot into his face. "Scum like this doesn't deserve to breathe the same air as me." He said. "He's not worth it." Bulma said, her hand squeezing his arm. He looked at her tear streaked face, and grunted. "You better go Yamcha, please don't come back." Bulma said.

Yamcha picked himself off the floor and stumbled out of the warehouse. "You didn't need to do that!" Bulma shouted, she was upset and Vegeta seemed to be the best person to take her anger, frustration, and pain out on. Vegeta just looked at her perplexed, as if she offended him. "Where I come from, if someone says no, then that's what it means. He had no right to advance on you." Bulma took a step back shocked. "Were you defending my honor?" Vegeta frowned at her, but didn't answer.

"I brought my belonging for the trip." He said, as he looked away, effectively changing the subject. "Oh, well you can just take it in your room. It's on the right." She said wiping her eyes. Vegeta gave a curt nod and walked away.

Bulma stared after him as he left. Did he really just do that? Why would he defend her like that, against Yamcha of all people when he knew that they were together, well, at least they were when he started living at Capsule Corp. She sighed; she will have to thank him. She was so surprised that she forgot.

Leaning against her desk, she took a moment to calm down. She needed to get everything finished and then get out of here. She would take off today if she could, but she knew that they couldn't leave until their pre scheduled launch date, and that wasn't until tomorrow. Why did Yamcha have to come today of all days? He hardly ever came over, even when they were seeing each other they barely did anything together. He only came over if the rest of the gang came by, and then when everyone left, he would say he had an early day and had to leave. When he did stay, it's not like they spent any time together. He would stay, they would sleep together, and then he would leave. It was more like she was his call girl rather than his actual girlfriend. She refused to continue to live that life. She was either going to have someone appreciate her, or be alone for the rest of her life. Taking a deep breath, she decided it was time to finish up. She was not going to spend any more time crying over Yamcha, he wasn't worth it.

Six hours later, everything was packed and ready to go. The only thing left was the good-bye party that Burma's mother had organized for her and Vegeta. So, Bulma had taken the last thirty or so minutes for her to get ready. Everyone was going to be there, and she was so glad that she would get to see everyone at least once before she was gone for the better part of two years.

She smiled at her reflection and thinks winked at herself. She always looked good no matter what she wore, but today it was a bright red cocktail dress. She had this one for some time, but this was the first time that she actually had a chance to wear it. She twirled and blew herself a kiss as she headed for the door. She bounced down the stairs happily, after all how often does someone go out to space to find a rare metal only to bring it back and then win the Nobel Prize! "Never!" She declared triumphantly when she got to the bottom of the stairs. She was met with the speculating eyes of Vegeta as he was about to make his way up the stairs. "I thought talking to your self was a serious illness that needed evaluation." Vegeta said with a smirk. "Even on Vegeta talking to your self was a condition that people would end up being put down for." She stuck her tongue out at him, and then grinned. "You can't ruin my mood today Mr. Grumpy, I am having a going away party and all my friends and family will be there. And…" she drew out leaning towards him slightly, "it's a party with the expectation that when I return, I will be the youngest woman to ever be nominated and to win the Nobel Prize." She said, giggling like a school girl who just caught her crush checking her out. Vegeta folded his arms, and grunted in response and headed up the stairs. "Wait, are you coming to the party?" Bulma asked surprised. Vegeta turned slightly and regarded her silently. "No." Then turned towards his destination. "You truly are Mr. Grumpy aren't you?" She said, he either didn't hear her or ignored her as he finished his climb up the stairs.

Bulma made her way to the East Wing of the mansion, she felt bad for Vegeta. She was beginning to realize that he really didn't have anyone to relate to at all. She didn't have as much time to go through the archives that she found in the old space pod, but she knew from what she did decipher, that the Saiyan race was a proud one. They also lived in groups, their batter squads were closer to them then their actual families, and in most cases, relationships formed from the men and woman who were assigned together since birth. Now, Vegeta was all alone. Yeah, there was Goku, but he wasn't brought up the same way. He was raised as human, and the two didn't compare at all, except for some parts of their DNA, they were completely different in all ways.

Bulma was brought out of her thoughts as she heard the loud noise of the party; she approached the doors and took a deep breath. It was Vegeta's choice if he didn't want to participate; she wasn't going to let that get her down. Besides, she grinned evilly, she will have just about 2 years to learn everything she needed to know about the Saiyan, and their proud and arrogant prince.

With that thought, she threw open the doors and announced herself happily. "I'm here!" She sang as she walked through the door, and laughed as everyone came to greet her. The evening was filled with dancing and drinking. Everyone spending time with each other before she left, it was the first time everyone had gotten together in a long time, and it would probably be the last until she returned. So she was determined to have as much fun as she could tonight. There wasn't going to be any thinking about old boyfriends, or grumpy princes. She was going to spend time with her friends and family.

Bulma stood at the base of the ramp that lead into the space ship. This was it, fly or die. Of course she took it out for a test drive, and of course she took it out into to space, and then came back down. She knows there wasn't anything to worry about. None of that was her concern; she trusted her own work more than anything. It was the space travel. She remembered feeling the same way when they were heading to Namak, she trusted that the ship would get her there and that she would survive, but going out to space, into the unknown. That was a scary thought. She figured that Vegeta coming along would mean she would be the safest, but it still didn't take away the jitters she was feeling. She took a deep breath and took the first step on the ramp, letting out once she put her foot down.

"Will you move it woman! We don't have all day." Bulma stomped her foot at the sound of Vegeta's voice behind her, obviously waiting for her to get into the ship so that he could follow her. She gave an un-lady like growl and stomped up the stairs. Her moment of remembering that she was an insignificant spec of life in the enormous universe was squashed as she waited for him to enter and the closed the hatch behind him. "Why do you have to be so grumpy all the time?" She snapped, making her way to the middle console. "Because it pisses you off." He said, giving her a smirk. She narrowed her eyes at him and glared. "That better not be the reason." He shook his head. "You never will know for sure will you." She give him a loud "humph" and stuck her nose in the air, "bastard." She said, taking her seat. He gave a quite chuckle beside her.

Bulma snapped her head in his direction, "did you just laugh?" She gasped, "You actually have the ability to laugh?" He frowned at her. "Will you just take off!" he demanded, she gave him a skeptical stare. "Hmmm…" she said, turning towards the console. And started pushing buttons and talking into the microphone to announce that all systems were go and she was prepped and ready for takeoff.

Vegeta folded his arms and closed his eyes. This was the best part, the take off. He couldn't really place the reason, but it always made him think of home, and this feeling was the only one that he allowed himself to feel any sentiment for. It was always the memory that was taking him away from the place he hated most.

Bulma started talking into the headphones again while glancing back at him, he was acting strange. They started to rise while the console beeped at her as she pressed buttons and pushed levers to get them going in the right direction at the right speed.

Once they cleared the hanger, she turned the ship and pointed it towards the sky. "Ready when you are." Dr. Briefs said into the speaker. "Be safe out there."

"You got it! We will check in every month." Bulma replied, then she pressed another series of buttons on the control panel and off they went. The pressure of the take off was strong enough to push them both into the back of their seats. Bulma was holding her breath, trying to think of anything but the take off. It was almost like riding a roller coaster when you go straight down, but instead you were going with the same force doing straight up. Once they broke through the atmosphere then the ship leveled out and the force became more even. Bulma let her breath out in a heavy sigh of relief. "I always hate that part." She said, shaking out her arms and legs.

She pressed more buttons on the control panel and then unbuckled. "Well, that's it; you should be good to do what you want now." She said standing. Vegeta followed her lead and stood up. He stretched a little bit then started heading to the back of the ship. "So, I scheduled our meals, and a timer will go off to remind me, space is so dark, it disorients me." She said, looking out through the glass of the front of the ship. Vegeta ignored her and went to his room.

Bulma sighed once he was out of ear shot. "Maybe this wasn't such a good idea after all..." she wined to herself as she tried to find something to occupy her time. She was starting to realize that being alone with the moody prince wasn't going to be as fun as she thought it was. Walking over to her area for her workstation, she uncapsuled her work area and sat down. "Might as well get some work done." She said, taking a seat. After all, she was going to have plenty of time to get all her small put off projects done. How great was that? She laid her head on her desk and groaned, she was board already.

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:)


	4. Chapter 4

Disclaimer: I do not own DBZ

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Vegeta landed on the floor of the main room of the ship and took a deep breath. The bands that Bulma had made for him were actually paying off. He was making progress in his training, which is something he was sure wouldn't happen without the option for the Gravity Simulator, but with the bands that she created, he was actually able to continue training without crushing her in the process. Not that it mattered much to him, but she was the one who maintained and piloted the ship, so he needed her at the moment.

Vegeta was getting ready to start his morning meditation when Bulma walked out of the bathroom. He frowned, she was singing to herself again. It wouldn't be so bad if she didn't sound like something was dying a miserable death. They had been on their trip for a little over a month, and he nearly lost his mind with the constant singing she did to pass the time. She either sang to herself, or along to the most obscene and horrific noise he had ever heard. When she explained to him that this was music, he responded with the most disgusted look he could muster. He had heard many of earths music's, and the classic were what he found to be, what was the right word, soothing? He wasn't sure. In his mind, music should be something that allowed your mind to flow, provide you with a sense of calm to be able to either relax, or think about something else. But what she listens to has no rhyme or reason, its noise that she blasts so loud that he feels as if his ear drums are going to explode.

He finally couldn't take it anymore and blasted the machine that was projecting the music. This of course ended in their largest argument since they took off. She of course continued to screech at him like a banshee, as he tried to explain to her that he would no longer put up with the racket and she needed to find another way to listen if she was so hell bent on doing so. She refused, of course, and played the music on the loud speakers of the ship.

He of course had had enough and threatened to blast the ship instead, and was sure to explain that he would most likely survive the ordeal, where she would not. She of course tempted her fate, and so he had his blast charged and at the ready. She finally relented when she realized he was serious and turned it off, telling him that he was unreasonable and a stuck up ass, to which he called her a bitch and she stomped off not to be seen for two days. This of course, was a blessing. Bulma thought of it differently of course, and seemed to think this was a punishment of some sort and he was more than happy to continue to let her think so.

With her emerging from the shower, he hoped that she would still be angry and not come out of her room. But he would have no such luck today. She of course emerged, and in the perkiest of moods, which only made him scowl in response. He hopped to whatever god was out there that she would ignore him. Again, fate was not on his side.

"So Vegeta?" She asked, just as she approached the kitchen area, looking for something to make for lunch. He ignored her. "I was searching through the data base that I upload into a portable drive from your space pod, and I had a couple of questions about some of the stuff I read." She began pulling various capsules out of the food compartments, and started to open them. Vegeta continued to ignore her.

"There were actually 3 things in particular that fascinated me, and in some cases seemed odd." She said, turning to look at him. She stomped her foot and folded her arms. "I know you can hear me." She snapped. Vegeta continued to try to ignore her, but heard her feet stomping as she approached him. "I have questions!" She snapped while nudging him with the toe of her shoe. Vegeta gave a growl and grabbed her foot while glaring up at her. "Can't you see that I am busy?" He shouted and yanked her foot which cashed her to fall on her ass. He almost laughed at the site.

"Busy? Ha! You're just sitting around doing nothing; seriously I have never seen you slack off so much." She said, sarcastically as she shifted on the floor in front of him to face him. "Look, I have a couple of questions, and then I will leave you to your meditation." She said sarcastically using air quotes. He narrowed his eyes at her. "What?!" He snapped, hoping that he could easily answer her stupid questions or just brush them off, which ever was easiest. "First…" she began, "there was mention of sending infants to other distant planets for purging. I assume that's what happened to Goku, but I don't understand why." She said, "The history say's that it's to protect the baby, but I don't see how that would protect and infant if they are going to a distant planet all alone and without anyone or anything to care for them. How do infants survive?" She asked, seriously. Vegeta frowned at her, of all the things she could ask her first question has to do with the well being of offspring? He rolled his eyes at her, of course, she was a woman after all and from what he understood, earth woman were obsessed with infants.

"Woman, if you are going to continue to decipher that history then you had better be able to at least understand the most basics of my race. And the first thing, that any saiyan does, right after birth, is prove that they are strong enough to survive." He said. Bulma frowned, "you really send helpless babies off to fend for themselves on an unknown planet?" She asked her face somewhat pale at the thought of this. "Yes, if they can't survive a small purge, they won't survive living on Vegeta with the rest of its inhabitants." He said. "But why does the start of life have to be about killing? And how does that keep them safe?" She asked, horrified and yet intrigued at the same time. "I mean, did you do that?" She asked, he frowned at her. "I am royalty; the hair to the throne does not go on an infant purge, and it keeps them safe because of something were too happy to our planet, then we would have survivors." He said, folding his arms with a thoughtful frown. "Why wouldn't royalty be treated the same way, I mean, aren't those the babies that they want to keep the safest?" Vegeta fought the urge to sigh at her questions, "The purpose of the purge is to not only decide if the infant is strong enough to survive, but it is also a way to determine what class to place the infant in after birth. In most cases, you start out in the class you were born too, but there are rare instances where an infant may be measured to be stronger than their birth parents, and there for is placed accordingly, this is not needed for the royal family." He said. "And the female infants, do they go to purges as well?" He shook his head slightly. "After the great Tuffle war, we had a shortage of woman, so any female that was born was taken straight to training. We couldn't sacrifice any females, if there was an even amount of men to woman, then it would be different, and before the great Tuffle war, it didn't matter if you were male or female, you went on a purge right after birth."

She gave him a look but didn't make a comment. "Your next question? I have worked to do." He said, impatiently. "Right, the next question. I read that all saiyan are classed from the time that they are born, you mentioned it a little bit before, where the class is determined by the infant's parents, but what is the purpose of classing them, and how do they do it?" She asked.

"We have to class a worrier because when they return from their infant purge they are placed in a squad. This is the same squad they will be with for the rest of their life in almost all cases. It has happened, but is very rare that someone would move to a new squad, unless they lost comrades, or they were found to be at a higher level than the rest of their squad members. Your squad is closer to you then family, you spend all of our time together, training, missions, meals, and sleeping. You have to be able to trust them and rely on them. If you are a higher or lower level than the rest of the squad, then you won't be an effective team. So they rate each infant that returns by class, then they assign them."

Bulma took a moment to consider this, although this seemed much like the class system that was around hundreds of years ago, where first class was the rich and wealthy, while third class was the poorest of the poor, it did make sense in this case. If you were in a team that was much stronger then you, you would die quickly.

"Ok, she said, now my last question." She said, shifting in her seat, Vegeta watched as she seemed to be somewhat uncomfortable, and fidgeted more. He frowned, what would she ask about that would cause her to be so uncomfortable. "My last question was about… well you see… I ran across this part where it talked about…" she cleared her through. "Spit it out!" He snapped. "Oh right." She gave a nervous laugh. "Anyway, mating, um, rituals?" Vegeta couldn't have frowned deeper. This was something he didn't know much about, and he didn't want to learn now. "What about it?" He snapped again. She frowned. "It's not like this is an easy subject with anyone, but you are making it harder!" She snapped back. He growled at her. "Ask now." He demanded. She was lucky he was even sitting here participating in her silly game of twenty questions.

She glared at him, "your info says that your race does not have a ritual for marriage. That saiyan's are not monogamous to each other." She said angrily. Vegeta frowned. "That's not a question." He said, his patience was growing thin, but she pressed on, continuing to give him a glare. "The data said that the only people who had a relationship that was considered monogamous was the royal family. But I don't understand why?" She finally said, "There aren't any accounts on mating at all, just that they were not expected to be bound to one another." Vegeta scowled further, he actually didn't know that. He knew he was expected to be betrothed to the strongest found female, but he didn't know that the lower classes were different.

"Why are you so interested in this?" He asked, avoiding to answer the question and to give himself time to come up with an answer. God only knew she wouldn't leave him alone until he gave her one. "This has nothing to do with you." He added, Bulma frowned, "I am a scientist Vegeta, anything about discovering new things, and building new things and exploring new places is what I love most. This intrigues me." He narrowed his eyes are her skeptically. Her face lit up some at the prospect of something new. "I can't help but be curious." She added.

Vegeta contemplated her words, while trying to decide what he should say. This wasn't something he normally thought about, and not something he ever expected to talk about, especially since his planet was destroyed with all his people on it, the clown, as he liked to call him, and himself were the only saiyan's that he knew of that were left. "I will tell you that with royalty it has to do with status and blood line. Any woman who is betrothed to royalty sees this as an honor and so will take no other to her bed unless her mate were to die. For the lower class, it is about reproduction." And with that he stood.

He wasn't going to sit here and discuss any longer about his dying race, or the memories that they invoked. It was bad enough that he indulged her with the answers to her questions, but he knew if he continued to sit there she would come up with more questions, and then some how she would find a way to get things out of him that he hasn't told anyone. He jumped into the air as high as he could go and decided that he would meditate there. He would ignore the woman, and if he couldn't he would meditate in his room.

To Vegeta's great relief, she got up and said nothing else. She seemed to be in deep thought about what they discussed, but she also seemed to have another question that she wanted to ask, but seemed somewhat afraid to do so. No doubt something equally uncomfortable, thankfully the last question was less about actual mating and more about relationships.

He took a deep breath to try to clear his mind and set on meditating. He had to reach the legendary before this mission was over. He had enough resources to do it, he had to focus on that one objective, the woman be dammed. He would lock her in her room if he had too.

Bulma watched as Vegeta flew up into air, effectively dismissing her and letting her know he was done talking. She got to her feet and headed back over to the kitchenette and began preparing lunch. This was all so confusing, why would they not have any marriage of any kind? Did that mean that none of their race was ever in love with one person? Or were they so primal that they were more like animals then people? She glanced up at Vegeta, he was a man of unexpected grace. Although arrogant and self absorbed, he had manners that were taught to him by someone. She didn't meet the other saiyan, so she had nothing to compare him too. She went back to cooking and wondered if she were to meet other saiyan's if they would have some sort of manners too, or would they all be barbarians.

So many unanswered questions. She looked up into the air at the moody prince. She had a feeling that he didn't know as much as he let on about it. Why was that? Didn't Goku say that their planet was destroyed when he was a child? Then that would mean that everything he knows is what is in that database as well, which also means, that if she goes through the whole thing, she would probably know as much about his race and home as he did.

That was sad really, being a young boy and the person who you are supposed to trust sends you off to basically be his henchmen to an evil tyrant to do his bidding. Then, while you are told as long as you do a good job and follow all the rules, then you can go home, only to discover that you weren't going to be allowed to go home at all because the only home you have was destroyed by the same evil tyrant.

Bulma sighed, and what was probably worse was that he was probably treated badly. How can he not be with the attitude he has. His anger issues are through the roof, and he has no people skills what so ever. Not to mention his arrogance was that which she had never seen before, and she didn't even want to get started on the issue with his pride. She signed again, not that she was one to talk in some of these areas. You see the flaws in others that you have yourself.

She shook her head, putting some meat and vegetables in a pan to cook. She needed to figure out what she was going to be doing for the next couple of months. She finished more projects in this short time then she thought she would. She needed a break from all of that. Thankfully she packed and entertainment center. She could capsule her work station and then break out the TV, at least that will kill some time. She grinned, stirring the food, making up her mind.

She was going through her list of movies that she wanted to watch when an arm reached over and took a piece of meat from the pan. Bulma jumped a bit and turned to be face to face with an angry looking saiyan. "I don't like my meat too well done." He reminded her as he put the meat in his mouth and then licking his fingers.

Bulma felt her face heat up a bit and held her breath as she watched him pull his finger out of his mouth. "It's done." He said, turning and walking away. Bulma turned abruptly back to the stove, and started to fan herself. Did she just…. She shook her head furiously. "Get a grip!" She scolded herself quietly. This was no time to be thinking about any of that, she shook her head again. This had to be because of the conversation they had had. Yes, that was it. She needed to go to her room and have a little alone time, then all would be well. Not to mention that it has been a couple of months before they had left, so that just added a whole other month to her time without being close to anyone.

Bulma piled Vegeta a heaping helping onto a plate and set it on the capsule table that she opened for meals only, and then served herself, taking the opposite side of the table with her plate. They both got to eating wordlessly. Bulma tried to look anywhere but him as she ate her meal. She couldn't help but steal glances his way. Vegeta was giving her a strange look and she quickly looked down. She heard his fingers begin to tap impatiently on the table and she glanced up at him again. He had completely stopped eating. Bulma looked away again, a pink tent to her face, and she could already feel her face heating up. She decided that she should look at her food only.

Vegeta was watching her curiously as she started to act strangely. He wasn't sure what it was, but this behavior was new. when she glanced up at him again, he finally had had enough. "What woman!" He finally snapped. She jumped slightly at his unexpected outburst, and looked up at him. She was looking at him as if she had done something wrong and he just scolded her. She swallowed hard and got up quickly. "Nothing," she said quickly and deposited her plate in the sink and all but ran to her room. Vegeta watched her go, he just didn't understand human woman.

He finished his meal quickly and deposited his plate in the sink. He recapsuled the table and placed that on the counter of the kitchenette. Rising into the air, he began another warm up for his afternoon workout.

During his warm up an alarm started to go off. He turned to the screen, and in giant red letters it said "Warning!" The main computer started repeating itself. He was about to investigate when Bulma came running out of her room and to the console. She started pressing buttons as quickly as her fingers would allow her. "What is?" He asked landing next to her. "What's happened?" Vegeta could see the fear on her face without her looking at him. "It's an asteroid belt!" She gasped, "It wasn't documented in the star maps of the space pod that you traveled to Earth on." She said. "There's no way to avoid it." She continued as she typed as fast as she could. "I can try to avoid most of it if I take manual controls. The computer might be to slow by itself." She continued to explain, taking a seat and buckling up. "You might want to sit down."

The computer continued to scream "Warning!" As Bulma moved the controls to manual, and then they began to maneuver through the asteroids. The problem was they were going in the opposite direction, and if she stopped the ship, they would be sitting ducks. "Do something!" Vegeta snapped at her, "I am doing something, will you shut up! I can't fly with you yelling at me!" He growled at her but did what she asked. Today was not the day he wanted his life to end by an asteroid and an incompetent pilot.

The ship jerked left and right, as Bulma tried to avoid the asteroids, but they were still getting hit. The computer provided a constant damage report on the screen which only discouraged her more. Bulma moved to avoid an asteroid that was larger than the ship, but in the process they collide with another, which resulted in another warning displayed on the screen. "We just lost all of our water." She said, her brow furrowed and her face scrunched up in concentration. "That's not good." She continued. "Way to state the obvious!" Vegeta snapped at her, "how much longer until we are out?" He asked. She tried to calculate the time, but couldn't move the ship and check that at the same time.

With a growl Vegeta went to the door that exited the main room. "Where are you going?" Bulma shouted as he left. "To save your ass!" Bulma continued to try to avoid the asteroids as they kept coming, one right after the other.

Then she saw Vegeta in a space suit attached to the ship. She gasped as he began to throw energy blast after energy blast as he destroyed the asteroids that were coming for them. She watched as he moved through space like it was nothing. He calculated each blast to hit one asteroid after another in perfect synchronization, without missing a single one. Bulma had to admit to herself that she was impressed, and she was starting to think differently about the grumpy prince. This was the second time he had come to her rescue.

Finally, after what seemed like hours, they were clearing the asteroid belt and Vegeta returned to the ship. They were still moving towards their destination, but they had taken more damage then Bulma would have liked.

"The left engine needs repairs, we have lost all of our water, and the hull has been breached. Thankfully, I brought some service bots that can repair the breach for us now, but we are going to have to stop for the engine repairs and I have to repair the reservoir for our water, not to mention that we need to find water somewhere." She said. Vegeta frowned, "what is the water for?" She shook her head and rolled her eyes. "Everything except for drinking, that water is separate." She said, "Showers, coolant, cleaning, you name it." Vegeta shook his head. This was bad. "We have to stop." Bulma told him.

"This is not a safe area to stop in." Vegeta replied, he hated to admit it to himself but he did not make many friends while serving under Frieza's army, and no matter how strong he was, he couldn't deny that he would be no match for an entire army on his own while trying to protect a woman and his ship. "Frieza's old bases are all over this area, and they are going to still have solders there. It's not a good idea." Bulma frowned. "We can't continue to fly without water; the engines use it with the coolant. Not to mention that the engine is going to fail at any moment without repairs and although the bots can repair the hull breach, I need to reinforce it. They can only repair it temporarily."

"Damn it!" Vegeta slammed his fist into the table. "This is the worst place." He pushed a couple of button on the middle console to bring up the star map. "We need someplace close." Bulma said waiting for Vegeta to provide his expertise in the area. "Here." He finally said, magnifying an area. It was a small green planet located in what was referred to as Sector 349, it was under Frieza's territory. "This is a small planet. It was mostly abandoned when I was still serving in Frieza's army. This might be the best bet we have. Its 3 days out." Bulma frowned. "That's cutting it close, but I guess we have no choice." She signed.

She reset the auto pilot and reset their course. "I don't have a very good feeling about this." Bulma said, after she set the coordinates. Vegeta didn't reply. "What are the chances that Freeza's army is still around?" She asked nervously. Vegeta gave a shrug, "knowing the people he kept around, I'd say it's a sixty-five percent chance." Bulma hung her head. "I was afraid you would say something like that."

* * *

Thanks again for all the reviews! I am going to be starting classes again on the 22nd, so here is a little gift for you! When classes start I wont be able to post as much.

I think this story is coming along nicely, don't you? Its doing better with views and reviews then I could have hoped for. Makes me want to write more! :D


	5. Chapter 5

Disclaimer: I do not own DBZ.

* * *

It's truly an amazing feeling to land on another planet. The fascination of the endless possibilities that await, and the exploration, it was music to Bulma's ears. She started into the distance from the front wind shield of the ship, her eyes lighting up like it was Christmas. She couldn't even take in the whole scene, there was too much to look at, too much to compare and contrast to Earth. She was already analyzing what she was seeing, as well as scrutinizing. Her hands itched to go out and take samples of the vast lands she saw before her.

"This is the best place to stop, the closest base is about fifteen miles to the north, I can get there quickly and find what you need. " He said, turning towards Bulma after securing his glove. He had went and changed into full battle armor, as he always did before venturing out into the unknown. Though he was familiar with the planet, he couldn't be sure if there was anyone there. For all he knew there was still a squad here somewhere, and he wanted to be sure he was fully prepared.

Vegeta gave Bulma a side long glance at the face she was making and glanced out the front window. "Will you pay attention?" He snapped at her. "This is not a vacation, we are here to salvage what we need and then get back to our mission!" He ground out roughly, and folded his arms while looking down on her with disgust. She snapped her head in his direction. "Excuse me for being fascinated by a new planet, it's not like I have traveled the galaxy like his highness!" She shot back sarcastically. He growled at her sarcastic comment, but didn't take the bait. "While I am gone do not leave this ship. Who knows who is out there, and you do not want to have a run in with any of Frieza's army." He said while pointing at her. "I mean it, so help me if I find you out exploring; I will leave you here at the mercy of who ever finds you." He warned. She gave an audible "humph" and turned her nose up at him. "Do I look like I am stupid Vegeta? I wouldn't go out there on my own unless my life depended on it." She said, "I will not go exploring, besides, I have too much work to do trying to repair the damaged those asteroids caused."

He gave her another hard stare, and then gave a curt nod and headed to the leave. "Vegeta, don't forget that healing tank!" She said, chasing after him as he walked down the ramp of the ship. "I really, really, really want one of those." She begged. He growled at her, annoyed, but didn't say anything as he took off into the air.

Bulma watched him go, and sighed. She was half way down the ramp and she really wanted to go take some samples. But she promised she wouldn't explore, and she had a lot of work to do. She headed back into the ship regretfully and closed the ramp. Maybe Vegeta would agree to let her do a little exploring when he returned, she pouted; that was unlikely. He would tell her she could explore when they got to their destination.

She powered up her service bots for assistance and headed to the engine room. She was glad that she set it up so she could do most of the repairs from inside the ship, but there was still a lot of damage outside, and she would get to that last. Once all the parts were repaired, then they would need to go in search of water.

* * *

It took Vegeta about twenty minutes to reach the base. He landed on a rock formation near the entrance and searched out with his energy to try to see if he could pin point anyone. He counted a small squad of 5. If there were any other members, they weren't present. He smirked, piece of cake. He was confident that he could take them all at once if he had too. He rose into the air and landed at the main entrance. First, he would go in search of the items that Bulma needed, then he would see if he could secure the Regeneration Tank. He rolled his eyes for even considering bringing one to her, but he had to admit, using one of those regularly would increase his strength output by an additional fifty percent at least. For all he knew, with her genius, she could probably improve the model. He frowned, when did he start thinking of her as a genius? He shook the thought off; he didn't have time to be thinking about her. He needed to get through the base as quickly as possible.

He entered quietly and walked towards where he knew the parts hanger was. He knew this because every base was laid out exactly the same. Frieza wanted to make sure that everyone knew where they were going at all times, some of his warriors were strong, but not very smart, this was the same with the ships.

He put in his personal access code was surprised to see that the door opened. He shook his head; they thought he was dead, so why disable his access code? He gave an ironic laugh; they were all going to die today. That might make them think twice next time. He walked in and scanned the shelves for something he needed. He found it to be more difficult because he was expected to translate Bulma's written language for the Standard written language, and this was not as easy as he thought it was going to be. Especially since he only just recently learned to read in Earths universal language, speaking it was nearly identical as the standard language, however, the written word was most defiantly different.

The search took him much longer then he had anticipated, but he was able to get everything she asked for. He quickly placed them in the capsule that she provided him and went in search of the Medical Wing. On his way he walked past the squad captain's office. He paused and back tracked. There might be a map for the planet in there, and if there was, he could find water. He was ready to open the door, and by god he hopped that there was someone in there. He waited anxiously as the door slid open and he walked in. He quickly scanned the room, disappointed no one was there, and went to the office desk. He didn't even have to go looking for the map, it was right there on the desk. He was examining it for the closest body of water, when he sensed someone approaching. He gave an evil grin and sat in the Squad captains chair, this is going to be fun.

The door slid open and a man about the same height and build as Vegeta, but with bright red skin, and stark white hair. The man paused in his tracks, while the door closed behind him. "Vegeta!" He gasped. "Hello." He said, giving a smirk. "Long time no see." He added. "But… we all thought… you were… you were reported dead!" The man stuttered. "Yes well, I'm not." Vegeta said, standing. "Surprise!" He said, turning to sit on the back of the desk facing the intruder. Well, he wasn't really the intruder because this was his office Vegeta was intruding on.

"Tell me, Jeice..." Vegeta paused at his name, letting the tension build. This was the best part of course, the feeling of power and being able to inflict fear and terror in people; oh how he had missed this. Since his time on Earth, less and less people were fearful of him, and he found it to be rather unsettling. Most of them didn't fear him simply because they didn't know, but for some reason, he only inflicted fear in the woman the first time he met her, now, she screeches at him fearlessly. But this, the look on Jeice's face was priceless. Especially when there was a time, not long ago when Jeice was stronger them him, but now, they both knew who would be the victor in a battle. But now, he could smell the terror rolling off of him in waves.

"Who is leading Frieza's army now that he is dead?" Vegeta asked after his moment for remenacing, and relishing in the man's fear. He had to admit, he was enjoying this way more then he would ever let on. Jeice was at one point his biggest enemy next to Frieza and his second in command goons, but now, he was just a little man he could crush with his boot.

Jeice stuttered as he tried to answer. "T…Tur…Turles." He finally said. Vegeta Frowned. "What?"

"Turles." He repeated. "I heard you!" Vegeta snapped. "How?" Jeice took a step back and collided with the door as the look on Vegeta's face changed from amusement to rage. "When Frieza died, the army was in shambles. Turles came and put everyone back in shape. He even killed any who opposed him. He asked where you were and he was told you were dead. He has been leading ever since."

Just as Jeice was finished explaining his scouted started to beep, notifying him that someone was trying to communicate with him. "Answer it, do not mention me." He said. "Yes My Lord Turles?" Jeice asked, after pushing the button on the side of his scouter. "There is a report that a ship landed south of the base. What have your scouts found?" Jeice looked at Vegeta. "They are on their way to investigate now. There haven't been any reports as of yet My Lord. Once I have information I will contact you." He said, Vegeta growled. The transmission ended. "Call your men off my ship!" He demanded. "They are probably already there." Jeice replied, feeling as if the upper hand had been switched from Vegeta to himself. "Damn it!" Vegeta walking up to Jeice and grabbed a fist full of his collar. "I would have liked to actually play a little longer, but as you know, I can't let my ship get destroyed then be stranded on this miserable mud ball with the rest of you freaks." He said and punch Jeice in the face, as he went down, he struck him the back of the head knocking him out. He picked up his scouter and crushed it. It wouldn't stop him from contacting anyone, but he would have to look for a replacement before he did.

He left the room and headed for the exit, he didn't run into anyone inside, but once outside, there were three other solders on their way in. He didn't recognize them though they knew who he was. This was not good; they were only going to slow him down. He hoped, though he wasn't sure why, the woman listened to him and didn't leave the damn ship, however, it was doubtful that this would be the case.

He gave and evil grin at the men standing before him, at least he was going to have a bit of fun before he got back. "Hello boys! Care for a little fun?" He taunted as he got into a fighting stance. The three warriors didn't hesitate as they all leaped at him at once.

* * *

Bulma wiped her hands on a dirty rag as she looked over the engine. Thankfully she was able to repair the issues without too much trouble; all she needed now were the two small pars that Vegeta went to get. She had brought two extra engines just in case, but it would be a waste to replace one now, she hoped that they actually had the parts she would need. If not, the salvage steel she asked him to get should be enough for her to make one, but that would take more time than they really had. She sighed, if only they could know for sure that the rest of the trip would be without incident. Afar the asteroid incident, she was thinking it wouldn't be. She had figured there would be complications, but she didn't count on this. Who known's what else that was out there wasn't mapped. "Shit!" She said, "I should have asked him to copy the star maps." She groaned, "Not that he would know how to do that." She whined out loud.

Well, now that the engine was as repaired as it could be with the parts she needed, it was time to head outside and start the repairs on the hull breach. The bots were able to clear the damage from the inside, but she was going to have to repair the outside for reinforcement. She was also a little afraid to see what other damage there would be, but the best bet was to just look and see if it was something manageable or not. She hopped she could fix it all and they wouldn't have to go looking for anything else. It was bad enough that she had to send Vegeta to find the parts she needed, she hopped he was able to actually find them and that he didn't bring back garbage.

She powered up the service bot to carry all the things she needed. This service bot had a welder on its back, which made it easier. This one could hold the pieces she needed, and cut them to size. She packed the bags with the tools and slung them over the bot's shoulder and they headed outside.

The ramp lowered and landed with a thud. Bulma waved her hand in front of her face to clear the dust that flew up with the impact. She took a deep breath and smiled as she walked down the ramp and looked around. There wasn't any one there, of course she didn't think there would be, but who knows. Vegeta did say that there was a good chance someone would be on this planet, but she would do her best to not get noticed. She was going to be under the ship after all. She took one last regretful look out into the distance. She really hopped she would be able to explore before they left. With a pout she turned back to the ship.

She took a moment to survey the damage, and frowned thoughtfully as she walked around the ship, looking at as much of the bottom and sides as she could. She couldn't see the top which meant she would have to get out her lift, but she would have to do that later. After making one full pass, she heaved a sigh of relief, there were only three other places that needed attention in addition to the hull breach on the underside, all other areas could be left alone. Once they reached their destination, she would repair the rest of the damage. She looked at her watch and then looked up at the sky, using her hand to shield her eyes from the sun. "I don't know what time it is here, but by the look of the sun, I should have at least another 4 hours of daylight." She looked around, "at least I hope that the sun sets in the west like it does on earth." She said out loud to herself, then laughed for talking to herself. Overall it was hard to say when it would get dark, but she needed to get through as much daylight as she could.

She walked back to her bot, and unloaded her tool bag; she pulled out the capsule that housed her lift to set it aside, when she heard food steps behind her. "Oh, you're back." She said standing and turning around, "That was quick, I was just getting ready to…" she paused as she was face to face with a soldier who was not Vegeta. She went shock still; this was bad, really, really bad.

"Who are you?" The man demanded with a voice that gargled, she took a step back and looked him over. He was tall but also round, and he was all different shades of green. His skin was dark green, with a lighter green for hair and his eyes were a lime green, she had never seen so much green. He was scowling at her and clicking his scouter, she assumed to see if she had any fighting power to speak of. She hopped he would see that she didn't and that he would leave her alone.

"I asked you a question!" He snapped, Bulma jumped slightly as the gargle in his voice intensified with his anger it seemed. She was about to say something when another person approached. While the first was green, this one was equally purple, but he was short and slender, as if he could blow away with the wind. She frowned; these were members of Frieza's army? She was not too impressed.

"Purpural, what are you doing?" The purple one asked, he turned his attention to Bulma and gave her a knowing smirk. "Ah, so this is what landed." Purpural, his smirk turning to a ghastly grin, "yes, she doesn't seem to want to tell me who she is though." Pupural said. "Why don't you try Gairen?" Gairen laughed, "With pleasure."

Gairen walked over to her and grabbed her arm roughly, he was taller then she originally thought, coming to about her shoulder. She mentally punched herself for not running, not that she would be able to get far, they flew, and she didn't. She knew because she didn't hear the footsteps until they were right behind her. If you spend enough time with Goku and the rest of the gang, then you learn to not be so surprised when someone fly's in.

"So how about we have a little fun? What do you say girlie?" Gairen asked, as he began to pull at her shirt. The warning bells immediately went off. They intended to rape her. She scowled at him, shoving his hand away. "Let go!" She demanded as he tugged at her shirt more. She tried to pull away which resulted in her shirt being torn. "Oops, how did that happen?" Gairen said, as he pulled at her shirt harder and tore it from her body. She was wearing a gray camisole, which she was thankful for, but she had a suspicion that that wasn't going to protect her. "She doesn't look like she wants to play, Gairen." Purpural said with a laugh. "Maybe we should help her out a little bit." Purpural said, walking behind her.

This was not good, she was alone, and she knew that no matter how much she screamed no one would hear her. She was going to have to fight and hoped she could keep them off her long enough. Vegeta was going to come back, this she knew, she just hopped it was sooner rather than later.

Purpural rubbed the swell of her hips with his hands, "Don't touch me!" She snarled, trying to get out from between them, they kept her caged. "Oh we are going to enjoy this, aren't we Gairen." Purpural said, "Oh yes we are, yes we are indeed." And they reached for her at the same time.

* * *

Vegeta had kicked the lifeless body of the last of the three soldiers who were kind enough to greet him at the entrance. Too bad none of them actually had the strength to even stand up to him for a little while. He had half a mind to go inside and kill every last one of them. The problem was that he didn't have time. If he didn't get to the ship, then he was sure that Bulma would be in danger. He jumped into the air growling to himself. He knew that this woman would be trouble and that he would regret this mission. He never should have agreed to this in the first dmaned place, and now he was off to save her, again! He tried to remind himself why he cared.

To top all that off he hears that a saiyan is leading Frieza's army, a third class warrior no less. He had to be taking orders from someone; there was no way that Turles could be leading the Galactic Frieza Army. He would have to look into it further, but he wasn't sure how. There were answers out there; he just had to find them.

Right now, he had to focus on getting back to the ship. He already wasted more time fighting those sorry excuses for solders and now he had to go save the woman. Boy was she going to owe him for this, going out of his way to come to her rescue, and he never gets so much as a thank you from her.

He picked up his speed while keeping as much focus as he could on sensing other people. It wasn't until he got closer that he realized she wasn't alone. "Damnit!" He said, and pushed all he could into flying as fast as he could to the ship. He just hoped he wasn't too late, and then he thought why he hoped that at all, she was nothing but a pain in his ass, why did he keep worrying about her? She was nothing but a weak human woman. Of course she did provide him with great gadgets, but that was the only good she provided. It had to be because of his desire to get stronger, and that she was assisting in that effort, just like any person should. She should be proud to be serving him in this way, but all he ever got was disrespect, he should just kill her and free himself from her constant nagging and chatter.

He landed with a crash about fifty yards from the ship. He could see that whoever was there paused in what they were focused on to look in his direction. He walked towards them and could see how their faces turn from outrage to fearful in a matter of seconds. Good, he already had the upper hand. "Mind telling me what you are doing?" He asked calmly as he approached. He waited for a reply as he surveyed the damage. Bulma lay on the ground, on her stomach, she was bleeding from somewhere, and he assumed it was her right side as it was facing away from him. The green one, Purpural he remembered, was leaning over her, while the purple one Gairen, was holding both of her arms over her head and had a fist full of her hair. He scowled; they were trying to rape her.

Vegeta felt his blood begin to boil. "Vegeta!" They both gasped, "Yes, I'm alive, now answer my question." He barked, approaching further. Both men let the woman go and moved out of range of Vegeta. She groaned as they released her but she didn't move. Her face was scrunched in pain, and the closer he got the more he could see that she had a large gash in her right shoulder and side. Her shirt was missing, and he pants were torn. This is why he didn't want to stop here, Frieza kept his men starved on purpose, it increased their aggression. Any woman with in vicinity of a purge would be pinpointed within seconds. He was mentally punching himself. He shouldn't have left her alone, he should have known better.

"Vegeta, is she yours?" The Gairen asked, pulling him from his thoughts and taking another step further away. "This is my ship." He said looking down at Bulma; he was trying to see how much damage they had actually done, so far it only looked like her right shoulder and side, but he couldn't see her front. "So it stands to reason that everything on it belongs to me." He finished, finally looking up at them. "You have damaged my whore." He said with disgust. Both men blanched. "But we didn't know she was yours." Purpural quickly responded. "Maybe you should have asked her." He snapped.

"But, she's just…"

"My whore!" Vegeta snapped again. "You don't think she knows my name?!" he shouted, "Or my title?!" He spat. He looked down at her again and turned her over with the toe of his shoe. "And now you broke my toy, I hadn't finished playing with her yet." He said, turning his glare on the men.

"Now Vegeta, we can talk about this."

"No, you damaged what was mine." He said with a dark voice that promised pain and death. Gairen couldn't take the fear any longer and jumped into the air to flee. Vegeta raised his hand and sent an energy blast at him. It hit him square in the back. All that was left were tiny bits of him as they rained down on the dirt. "Vegeta, surly our lives are not worth that of a common whore." Purpural said, taking a step back. "Common." Vegeta spat, scowling. "Have you ever seen a woman with her coloring?" He asked. "Pale skin and blue hair?" he continued taking a step forward. "She is anything but common." He growled.

Purpural coward before Vegeta, "Please, I didn't know. How could I?" He said, begging for his life. "Disgusting." He said, and blasted him where he stood; all that was left was a pile of ash.

He crouched down to Bulma and removed the tattered clothes from her torso; she was still wearing that undergarment that he didn't understand. He could clearly see the gash in her right shoulder was deep, he could see bone, and her ribs were all broken on her right side. Burses were already forming on her skin, and he grit his teeth. "You called me a whore." She croaked, he smirked at her, "For all I know that's exactly what you are." He replied. "Bastard." She laughed, he chuckled.

"This is going to hurt." He warned, and he lifted her off the ground. She screamed her pain and he paused once he got her securely in her arms. Once he was sure she was secure, and as comfortable as she could be he wordlessly jumped into the air. She screamed at first, but thankfully reduced her vocalization of her pain to a minimum. He went as fast as he could and in a strait of a line as he could, maneuvering too much would make the pain worse, and she was already bleeding all over him.

He touched down at the front entrance of the base and headed in side. Bulma had finally passed out from the pain and blood loss, and he was thankful for the relief in her whimpering. He put in his access code which still worked, and he shook his head at the stupidity of these people as he headed directly to the medical wing.

He placed her on an examination table and jammed the door so that it wouldn't open. Once he got her secure in the regeneration tank he was going to kill every last living thing on this planet, then he would collect her and they would leave. He began putting in the codes on the machine and tried to find her DNA. He searched and searched, growling as he realized that human DNA wasn't listed. Of course, why would it? None of the army would be human, they were too weak. He growled and decided to go with what he knew and punched the code for saiyan DNA, she had told him once that they were close relatives, and that was the best he could do.

He turned back to Bulma; she was still passed out on the table, with blood all over her. He was sure he didn't look any better after carrying her here. He began to remove her cloths deciding that getting them off as fast as he could would be best, so he tore them from her body. She didn't stir. After getting her undressed he started to examine her ribs. They were all broken; he looked at her face regretfully and reached for the bone suture that was set nearby. He set it in place and activated the device.

Bulma woke with a scream that would have killed any lesser man with the pitch of it. Tears were flowing from her eyes freely, and she gripped his arm as hard as she could try to get him to release her and begged him to stop, but he held fast. The resetting of the bones had to happen all at once, if he stopped it now he would have to start over, and that was a sound he didn't want to hear again. If he didn't rest them, they would heal badly in the tank. The tank could only heal the break, not rest the bone.

Once the device had set the bones in place, he closed the scanner on the table over her body and began a full scan; he needed to make sure there weren't any other breaks. Bulma was shaking and shivering from shock. "I'm so cold." She whimpered. Vegeta ignored her, and finished the scan; she would be warm once he got her in the tank. Satisfied that she didn't have any other broken bones, he lifted the scanner of the examination table, and lifted her. She cried out softly as he quickly made his way to the regeneration tank.

The tank had filled about half way and was still filling. Adjusting her in his arms, Vegeta began to put her in feet first. "What are you doing?" She gasped, panic clear in her voice. He didn't answer, and she began to try to get away from the tank. She had lost a lot of blood and the pain was clouding her judgment. "Be still woman." Vegeta snapped, but she didn't listen and continued to fight. "Woman…" he said, trying to get her attention, but she continued to fight. "Bulma!" He snapped. She finally paused, and looked him in the eye, that was the first time he ever used her name. "You are injured and you have to go in the tank to heal." He said. The eye contact he was making with her was so intense; he could see panic and terror in her eyes. Although she didn't fight anymore, she didn't loosen her grip on the outside of the tank either. He could force her in, but that would break bones all over again. He just hoped that she didn't loosen the setting he already had done. "Please don't put me in there." She whispered, and the tears began again. "You have to heal." He replied, pushing her in gently, "I will be here when you get out." He said. She finally let go of the tank and let him put her in place.

Vegeta attached the mask to her face, and then closed the top hatch. He watched as the rest of the tank filled with a thick blue liquid causing her body to float, and she began to panic again, gripping at the mask and pounding on the top hatch. Vegeta watched as her efforts finally slowed, and her eyes became heavy as she was starting to drift off to sleep, the sedative finally taking effect. He pouched a couple of buttons on the console giving her a steady flow of the sedative, as he assumed she was claustrophobic, and her waking up while in there wouldn't be good for anyone. He checked the settings one last time; her healing would take four hours. Vegeta nodded to himself, satisfied. He decided there were other things he could do while he waited. Vegeta gave a chilling grinned as he turned back to the door. It was time to get some answers and do a bit of cleaning.

* * *

AN: Thanks again for all the reviews to my story. I wrote this chapter pretty much right after the last, I have just decided that I need to spend more time editing. :) also, I recently updated chapters 1 -3, and I hope they are in better condition. Any constructive feedback is welcome and appreciated. I hope you enjoyed this chapter, and I am defiantly enjoying writing it.

Also, I will be starting school up again on the 22nd, I think I mentioned this before, but once that happens, things might slow down a bit, so I just wanted to post extra as an early apology and appreciation to all the readers. TTFN!


	6. Chapter 6

Disclaimer: I do not own DBZ.

* * *

Bulma woke with a start, her body jerking as her eyes snapped open. She was lying on her side facing the wall, and she felt the signs of panic coming on, and for a second forgot where she was. Her breathing was raged and harsh as she took in her surroundings. She was in a medical room, and she spotted a regeneration tank that still showed the signs of use. Although the blue substance that was in it was drying, it was still dripping down the front of the machine. She lifted her upper body on to her elbow and looked at herself. The first thing that alarmed her was that she was naked. There was a sheet of some sort covering her, which she gripped tightly to herself. She felt sticky, and whatever was on her was almost dry. She frowned; did she come out of the regeneration tank? How long had see been in there?

Bulma was growing more and more concerned as time went on, she couldn't seem to remember what happened after Vegeta saved her from those goons. She made a disgusted sound at the stickiness of her body as she pulled the sheet covering her tighter around herself and looked around the room. She must be in the base that Vegeta said was close to the ship, which was the only explanation.

She sat up fully and turned to see behind her, and there sat the grumpy prince, sitting in a chair. He seemed to be sleeping, completely relaxed. She gazed at him curiously, when had she ever seen him so relaxed? She didn't have an answer for her own unspoken question. she decide that this was a good time to look him over, although she did sneak peeks and looks here and there, with him sleeping she could look at him fully without being caught.

She realized his face looked years younger when he didn't have that pronounced frown or scowl in place, which she thought made him more handsome. She wondered if he was actually as old as she originally thought he was. She had pegged him as being much older than herself; his scowling face added years and she thought he should look more relaxed more often. His hair, as always, swept up in an unnatural flame, and seemed to be a bit damp. She looked down his body, his arms folded over his chest, which was close to his normal stance; it seemed to be his comfortable resting position. She took in his broad shoulders and traveled down his narrow waist. His legs were extended out in front of him, and his feet were crossed at the ankles. She took another moment to admire his physic, she always thought he was cute, but she never actually had a chance to openly gawk at him, and she definitely liked what she saw, she should look at him more often, she thought. She continued to study him when she thought she saw something move.

Bulma shifted her eyes in the direction of the movement, but didn't see anything strange but her eyes did travel to the pile of clothes on the floor. She could see her clothes torn to tatters, and then what looked like a set of Vegeta's armor discarded on the floor covered in blood. She gasped as she looked down at herself, her left hand coming up to her right shoulder and inspecting the smooth skin there. She inspected the area critically, and noticed that there seemed to be skin that was a bit lighter in shade then the rest in a large area. She let the sheet fall some and inspected her side, raising her right arm in the air. The same, patches of skin at a lighter shade. She looked at the regeneration tank again and then smiled when she turned her attention back to the sleeping prince.

He must have put her in there after he saved her. What did he do to those soldiers who were attacking her though? She put her hand over her mouth and gasped again, did he kill them? She could barely remember what happend, only that they attacked her and he came and saved her. She didn't remember him bringing her here, or being in the regeneration tank at all. Did she have a concussion? She felt her head with her hand and took a moment to think about it. She felt a bit groggy but her head didn't hurt, she actually felt really good. Better then she had in a long time actually.

She looked down at the pile of cloths again, and frowned. She wasn't going to ask what happend to those men; she would rather live in ignorance, even if they did try to rape her. Movement caught her eye again and she shifted her eyes in where she thought she saw it, but there was nothing there, she frowned, maybe she did have a concussion.

"Finally awake." She heard, and she turned her gaze to the saiyan who still seemed as if he was sleeping. He didn't look like he moved at all. "What happened?" She asked, securing the sheet tighter to her body. She assumed he had to have seen her naked, who else undressed her and put her in that tank, as well as pulled her out when she was finished. He didn't open his eyes when he spoke again. "You neglected to follow orders." He replied. She glared at him, "I do not take orders from you."

"I specifically said not to leave the ship." Vegeta replied, finally opening his eyes. His features going from relaxed back to that trade mark scowl that he always wore. "No, we agreed that I wouldn't go exploring." She replied.

He growled at her and stood. That's when she saw it, finally, the object which she thought for sure she had seen but couldn't actually pin point, his tail.

Bulma gasped as Vegeta instinctively wrapped his tail around his waist and approached her. "I specifically said do not leave the ship." He repeated. "You did the exact opposite." He accused, scowling at her angrily. Bulma was suddenly very aware of him, and then very aware of her state of undress. She clutched the sheet tighter around herself, and scowled back. "I promised not to explore. If I didn't try to repair the ship, then we would have been here for hours longer, plus I didn't know when it would get dark and I was trying to take advantage of the day light." She said.

Vegeta growled. "When I give an order, I expect it to be followed, you leaving the ship caused those solders to find you un-nessasaraly and we would be half way across the galaxy by now!" He said, turning his head to the side, dismissing her explanation. "There will not be a next time." He said, "Because next time, I will let them have you."

"You wouldn't!" She gasped, he turned to look at her again, and his gaze told her that he would. At least, he believed he would, she on the other hand wasn't convinced. "Let's go, we have to finish the repairs and get off this mud ball." He said, turning to leave. "Vegeta, how did you get your tail back?" She asked, shifting the sheet tighter around herself before she got off the examination table. He turned and gave her a smirk. "It was an idea that I got after taking you out of the tank." He said.

Bulma frowned and slid off the table, "an idea you…" she yelped as she landed on the ground when she tried to take her first step. Vegeta watched in amusement as she tried to get up at the same time as keep the sheet clutched to her body tightly. She stood, and took a tentative step forward. Satisfied that she would be successful, she tried again, and landed on her ass a second time.

She scowled at Vegeta as he gave a slight chuckle, which he tried to cover with a cough. She stood again, and reached down to scratch her leg from a slight tickle. She screamed after feeling something furry clutched to her leg. Lifting the sheet frantically to inspect what it was, she paled. "What the fuck is that?!" She screeched. Vegeta just stood there watching as she became more and more hysterical. She tried to grab the appendage with two fingers as she lifted it from her leg and tried to throw it from her body, but the damned thing wouldn't leave her alone. "Vegeta you have to get this thing off me!" She screamed, trying to find where it was coming from. "Don't just stand there! Help me!" She demanded urgently

Laughter paused her in her hysteria as she turned to watch Vegeta. Bulma's face turned red, "What the fuck are you laughing at!" She screeched, while still trying to remove the furry thing from her leg. "It's attacking me! Stop laughing and get it off me!" He cleared his throat taking a deep breath and smirked at her. "Its attached to you." he said, "I can't remove it."

Bulma blanched and looked down, "Attached where?" She demanded, trying to find where it was attached. "It's a tail you idiot!" he barked, "it won't come off unless you cut it off." He said still amused. She fell to the floor again, "a what?" She whispered, shocked. "A tail." He repeated. "I am surprised it's not brown." He said offhandedly. "I have a tail?" She whispered. "I can't have a tail!" She looked down at it as it seemed to have a mind of its own, wrapping around her thigh again. "This is insane!" She just stared at it, as if it would bite her. She tried to remove it from her leg again, using only two fingers as if it was some sort of insect or disgusting creature. "It's a part of your body." He said, grabbing her arm and pulling her to her feet. "But how did I grow a tail, humans don't have tails." She said, confused and trying to wipe the thing off her leg. "From what I gather, it's due to the DNA that was used to heal you in the Regeneration tank." Vegeta replied. "What DNA did you use?" She asked harshly, accusing. "Saiyan." He said simply. She narrowed his eyes are him, "why in the hell would you use Saiyan DNA when you were putting a human in there?" She was getting angry, what was she supposed to do with a tail?

Vegeta couldn't help but find amusement in her misfortune. It served her right for disobeying him, she should have thought out the consequences before deciding to do what she wanted on an unknown planet that he warned her would house Frieza's solders. "Because there isn't any for human DNA." He replied, getting annoyed at her questions and her accusatory tone. "Be thankful that I put you in there at all!"

She growled at his reply. "Now let's go, we don't have a lot of time." He said, and started to drag her out the door. She pulled back, "Wait, I want one of those tanks!" She said, trying to go back into the examination room. "We don't have time for this. " Vegeta growled, pulling on her arm as he made his way out the door. Bulma tried to put as much dead weight into her body as possible, while also clutching the sheet to her body. "I am not leaving without that tank." The look on her face told him that he would have to drag her out of there. Vegeta turned fully to her, and scowled. With a growl he picked her up and threw her over his shoulder roughly. She screamed with surprise then started beating on his back and kicking her legs. "Put me down you asshole!" She was screaming, and continued to scream all sorts of profanity at him.

Vegeta's eye was starting to twitch. He had had just about as much as he could take of her screeching. "Shut up!" He finally bellowed. She paused in her verbal abuse, only because she was caught by surprise by his yelling, but in the end that only made her angrier. She continued her leg kicking and pounding on his back.

During her struggles, the sheet she was holding to herself was becoming looser and looser, her tail lashed behind her as she continued her protests. Finally having had enough Vegeta reached over and gripped her tail in his right hand and squeezed. Her protests immediately changed from anger to pain which resulted in her begging him to stop, "stop you're screeching and thrashing!" He demanded. She quickly agreed. Vegeta let go of her tail and she went limp in his arms. Vegeta was mildly impressed she was even able to continue the fight she just put up. Any time in the regeneration tank was physically draining.

Finally having somewhat resolved that issue, he exited the base and headed straight for the ship. Bulma needed to finish the repairs, and then they needed leave. They had spent too much time there already. "Vegeta? What happened to all the solders that were at this base?" She asked tentatively, in all honestly she wasn't sure she wanted to know. "What do you think happened, I killed them." He replied. Bulma gasped, she was even more horrified at the nonchalance in his voice when he said it. "All of them?" She whispered. "Most of them." He replied. "Those two who attacked me?" She inquired, although she knew the answer. She didn't want to ask, but it just came out. "Why are you asking me questions you know the answers to?" He shot back annoyed that he was not subjected to twenty questions yet again.

"Why?" She asked, unable to truly process or decide how she felt about it. These men were trying to rape and possible murder her, and Vegeta did come to her rescue, but did he have to kill them? What about the rest of the soldiers, why did he have to kill them? She would understand if they were trying to kill him first, and it was kill or be killed, but if he went in search of them… she didn't have the stomach to really dive into those thoughts and dissect how she felt about it.

"Because they would have tried to kill us." He stated, "And I wanted to." Bulma was silent after that comment, she wasn't sure what to say to that, or even think about that. How can someone be so nonchalant about killing someone? It was awful. She felt her eyes beginning to tear, and she closed her eyes against the tears. She wasn't going to cry about this, not in front of Vegeta of all people. But she couldn't help but think, even if they are evil, do they deserve to be judge and killed all at the same time? Not only that, but without a second thought or care about it? Did Vegeta really not care that he took someone's life? Did he enjoy doing it?

Maybe he was everything that he said he was. Maybe she should be afraid of him. But if he really likes to kill, and really didn't care, then why would he come to her rescue, and at three different times? Of course, one of those times included his life as well, but he was sure to let her know that he would have a better chance at surviving then she would. How was she supposed to process this information? How was she supposed to feel about this?

They had reached the ship and Vegeta didn't put her down until they were inside. He put her down in the middle of the floor of the main room. He frowned looking down at her face. She had tried not to let the tears fall, but she failed. The tears were for everything that had happened, not just what he did, but what happened to her. "Your tears are wasted on them." He said. She shook her head, but didn't respond. "You knew what I was you agreed to build my machine." He said, and with that he left the ship.

Bulma got up and went to her room; she needed to wash this sticky solution off her body. She had just about entered her room when she paused. She might be able to get samples of it before she washed it off. She went to her desk/lab area in search of a petri dish. Finding it she frowned, the solution was practically dry and very sticky. She went into the bathroom and got her arm wet, trying to see if she collects enough of it. She wet her arm and rubbed, then took the dish and scrapped at the substance. It was the best she could do. She should be able to get something out of that, she sighed and decided that it was time to get that sticky stuff off her body.

* * *

Once he deposited Bulma into the ship, he tuned and left. This experience was somewhat of an eye opener. He was letting his emotions get the better of him; living with these humans was making him forget who he was and where he came from. He was the Prince of all saiyan, a warrior race who not only valued strength but also pride. But how could he continue to hold pride for a dead race? For a race that was able to be squashed out like a bug so easily?

His father had once told him that the saiyans were the strongest race in the universe, then, out of nowhere, Frieza comes along and crushes that belief and dream as if it was nothing. And now, instead of being alone, and wanting to stay close to his rival for motivation, he finds that he is going soft. He killed everyone he could find today, and didn't think anything of it. But instead of not caring, the damned woman had him questioning if it was truly necessary to extinguish them all. Before living on earth, he never would have given it a second thought; he would have done the deed and then ate right after as if it was nothing. So why does that woman make him think differently? Why was he going out of his way to come to her rescue and even save her life? He couldn't remember a time when he actually cared if someone lived or died, with the exception of his father. He was the only person he felt anything for when he died; he couldn't remember his mother, so there wasn't anything else. That being said, the loss of his father was a different matter entirely. He was the man he looked up to, the one he would one day be when he came of age. The man he would fight to the death so that he could be crowned king. His death was a finality that he wasn't going to be able to ever escape. He would always suffer because of it. And when he died, and Kakarot died, then that would be the end of his race. He couldn't count on others being out there, even if they were they wouldn't be able to rebuild, there weren't any saiyan woman they were few and far between as it was.

He clinched his fists and jumped into the air. He needed to train, and all of this was wasting time. Achieving the legendary was the most important thing, and he finds himself putting that that on the back burner, even if it was unintentionally. He needed to find a solution to this and fast. He should just kill the woman and take the ship and train. Then he would be able to reach the legendary without any distractions, and once he had achieved that, he would go back to earth and show Kakarot why he was the Saiyan Prince, the chosen one. His mind made up he decided that he would train, let the woman repair the ship, and then kill her. This would eliminate his ties to earth and free him from the burden that he found himself tied down with.

It was six hours later that the ship's repairs were finally complete. Bulma heave a heavy sigh and as she wiped her brow and put the welder back in its place on the service bot she used. She gave the top of a ship one more look just to make sure she got everything. Satisfied that everything was repaired she went back to her lift and started down. She patted the side of the ship as she decided, "not as pretty as you were, but this will do." She said, as if the ship could tell that it was now scarred.

Just as Bulma stepped off the lift she heard rustling in the dirt behind her. She whipped around terrified, but then heaved a sigh of relief at seeing Vegeta there. "You scared the shit outta me!" She accused, with her hands on her hips and a frown. "Give a girl a warning next time, jeeze!" She said, turning to her tools and service bot. She packed up and then heaved the bag back on to the service bot to take them back into the ship. She turned around to see Vegeta just staring at her. "You ok?" She asked, she really couldn't place the look on his face. He didn't reply and instead headed into the ship. She shrugged, deciding that he was just grumpy, and followed him in.

Once inside she capsulsed her tools and he service bot, then went to the ships main controls. "Well it's all done; we can leave when you're ready." She said, walking up to the main console. Vegeta just watched her, his face unreadable. "Seriously you're starting to creep me out, what is with you?" She asked, he had never looked at her so intently before. He still didn't answer and joined her at the main console. Bulma gave him another skeptical look, but took her place in the captain's chair and began firing up the engines. She pulled and performed a diagnostic on the ships systems just to be sure. Based on the status everything was in working order and good to go. "Well that's a relief" she said out loud. Vegeta was still staring at her. "It's going to take about 30 minutes to be fly ready." She said, turning to face Vegeta.

"Why did you grow back your tail?" She asked suddenly, Vegeta frowned. "Why not." He replied. "Was it because I somehow grew one out of nowhere?" She asked. "Yes." He answered honestly. "Well I will be doing some tests to see why this happened. But my guess is that the DNA in that blue solution for rapid healing is what caused it. Somehow gave me saiyan DNA mixed with my human DNA. My main concern is what else it might have an effect on." She said, "I mean I will always be human, and I doubt I can take the DNA that somehow was fused to my body out, but I think I should know what else might change." She said a nervous look on her face. "I really don't want to change into a giant ape…" she trailed off, turning back to the console. "It's possible" Vegeta said, "and it's an experience one either never forgets, or never remembers." He replied. She glanced at him with the corner of her eye. "Do you remember your transformations?" She asked seriously interested. "Yes, I was taught from a very young age how to control my Great Ape form, all saiyans are." He said. Bulma frowned, and raised her tail up to her face. "It's amazing how this little thing is responsible for all of that." She turned her head in Vegeta's direction. "You have to give me a blood sample." He frowned, "what for?" He complained, "So I can compare my blood to yours, it's the only way I can determine how much this has affected my own DNA." She said. Vegeta rolled his eyes, but agreed.

It wasn't like it was really going to matter in the long run; he would be rid of her soon anyway. "Alright, we're ready to go." She said, pressing buttons on the main console, once done she strapped herself into her chair and they were lifted into the air and exited the atmosphere. Vegeta found that tension left his body once they left the planet. Jeice was still there, and he knew that he had contacted Turles. It was only a matter of time before they found him. He needed to prepare himself for that, after all he wasn't sure what they were planning.

"Well, I am off to make something to eat and take a much needed nap." Bulma announced once they were back on course." Vegeta watched her go and lifted into the air. He trained the entire time Bulma was fixing the ship, she was making food now, and then he would train some more. He had to keep training no matter what. He looked down on Bulma from above for a moment. He decided that he would allow her to make his meal, then he would kill her. At least, that's what he was telling himself; after all, he already put it off, what was the harm in keeping her alive a little longer?

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AN: I had a lot of difficulty with this chapter, as well as the next. I struggle with keeping the story on track and not going off in to other directions. I had to re-write parts of this chapter twice. Hopefully, its good and you all enjoy it. Thank you so much for the reviews so far, and I promise its going to get more exciting so please be patient with me! :D


	7. Chapter 7

DISCLAIMER: I do not own DBZ.

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Bulma leaned back in her chair and folded her arms are she stared angrily at her computer screen. She had gone over the data six times, and it all came up the same. She frowned while massaging the bridge of her nose. What was she going to do? How was she going to be able to cope with this? She glanced up at the ceiling where Vegeta silently trained. He had been very distant lately. Not that Bulma went out of her way to engage him, or that they were really close to begin with, she wasn't sure what to say after what happed at the base they had left a couple weeks prior.

The first couple of days she had spent in her room, unsure of what to do with herself or her situation. She was alone even though there was another person with her. She didn't know what to do about the issues that have come about because of her near rape and murder, and the trauma she had endured. She had never been in a situation like that before; she always had someone around to protect her.

She couldn't deny that Vegeta did save her from what she was sure to be a painful and brutal death, but she still couldn't fully shake the uneasiness she felt, not from him killing those men, but how he didn't seem to show any remorse for doing it what so ever. It was true what he said, she was aware of what he was, what he might have done while being in Frieza's army, but knowing it and seeing it were two very different things. Not that she actually saw what happened, but that she was there when it did happened, and having had some exposure to it at all was something she just didn't know how to deal with.

Vegeta seemed angry, and she wasn't sure what was causing it. For all she knew, just being back at the base could have triggered some old unpleasant memories with him, and she never would have known because she didn't know what it was like, or what he went through. It couldn't have been good based off the stories that she'd already heard, and according to Vegeta, that was only the tip of the ice berg. Living with that for practically your whole life had to affect you psychologically in some form or another, she just didn't want to think about it too much.

She pushed her tests aside and went to the notes she had been taking of the research she had been conduction of saiyans. She originally took these notes to better understand Vegeta, because it was inevitable that they would have exposure to each other, one way or another. She looked up at him again, now she realized that things were different. She was feeling like she was moving to a place where he would not be able to follow, or maybe he would be unwilling to follow, she wasn't sure.

He had come to her rescue three times, and she could no longer deny the affection that she was feeling for him, not to mention how much affection she actually wanted to give him. She was too afraid to do anything about it; her fear of rejection from the moody prince outweighed her current need to be close to him. So, she allowed him to remain distant.

But now she was starting to take on characteristics of a saiyan, she was concerned about how she was going to cope with that. She secretly hoped that Vegeta would take notice, but on the other hand, she was afraid of what his reactions to it will actually be. She already could feel the changes, the tail being the most prominent. She looked at the appendage, the fine hairs were a mix of blue and brown. The blue was the same color as her hair and was more prominent then the brown hairs which made the color look darker then her hair. Bulma snatching it from her leg angrily and tried to toss it aside. It had a mind of its own and she could barley control it, not to mention it showed her every emotion, which she hated.

She eyed the furry appendage skeptically as she turned back to her research. There were a few points that she had made regarding saiyans that she thought were the most important. First, saiyans were extremely aggressive. Aggression was used in all aspects of a saiyans life, politics, intimacy, eating, everything. It wasn't only hard coded in the DNA, so the research showed, but it was ingrained in them from a young age. The second most important point was that strength was everything. If you were not strong, no one would follow you, no matter how good of a leader you actually were you had to be seen as a leader based off your strength. The power levels were taken at birth, and assessed based off family history, and then they calculated how strong that infant would be using an algorithm that she was unable to locate. Once that was determined, then they put the child in a class based off that power level.

The third most important point was pride. The pride of a saiyan, not only in their race, but also in themselves, was higher than she had observed anywhere else. She knew what pride was, and felt it even herself, but the saiyans took this to a whole new level, heights she never thought possible. Although the arrogance worked hand in hand with this pride, the pride that saiyans possessed was much more about their own self worth, and the worth of their race.

The forth point was loyalty. They were loyal to each other above all else and yet had no qualms with putting an end to a traitor or someone weaker them themselves. It was more of a mercy killing then an actual murder, or so the saiyans saw it this way. Why be alive if you aren't strong enough to defend yourself? Killing a comrade was a serious offence to the rest of the squad, and the entire squad suffered from the absence. That being said, if a squad member was branded a traitor, then the rest of the squad members would not hesitate to end their friend's life. The entire race was loyal to the Vageta Empire almost to a fault, even if what was happening was something that an individual thought was wrong; they would keep their opinion to themselves as they executed what was expected of them without question. It was the elite soldiers who were more likely to question certain things, but only tactically, or strategically, they would never question morality because the King was not only the ruler, but he was the strongest of them all, and any question would mean certain death.

She was more curious now about how these changes that were affecting her were going to make her more saiyan. She hoped that it was not going to change her overall personality. She shook her head, not that there weren't other aspects of her personality that strongly resembled a saiyan, she could go head to head with Vegeta any day on who was more arrogant, or had more pride, but they were only different because she had pride in her work, and her own intellect, while Vegeta had pride in his strength, and his people. When she really thought about it, it wasn't really that different, just focused on different things.

She looked back at the test results, the amount of saiyan DNA was increasing over time. It was literally consuming her human DNA and she wondered if that is what happened with Gohan when he was conceived, and if that was why he was so strong for such a young child. She glanced up at Vegeta as he descended to the floor and watched as he walked over to the small fridge and got a bottle of water and downed the whole bottle in one sitting, but she couldn't help watch as the muscle in his throat constricted with his swallows. She continued to watch as he threw the bottle in the trash and then began stretching near the counter. He moved with such agility, that every time she saw it she was taken aback. It was as if he could move his body in any position just to achieve the stance he was looking for without strain or effort. He stretched his arms over his head and leaned from side to side, and she was mesmerized by his movements. It was hard not to stare at a man with a body as fit and lean as his, his tail was free from the strict confines of his waist, which was rare, and she watched as it moved as he did, almost in synchronization, as if every move he made required the additional balance the appendage provided, she secretly wanted to know if his was as soft as hers was.

She had decided sometime ago that there wasn't any reason to hide her gawking; he knew she was watching anyway. He either didn't seem to mind or care and he hardly reacted to it. She hopped that one day she would catch him doing the same, but she never did. She sighed inwardly, she was losing this battle and it hadn't even started yet.

Vegeta turned in her direction with a passive expression before he saw her watching him. Once he realized she was watching and not trying to be conspicuous about it, he narrowed his eyes are her and frowned. "You going to sit there gawking at me or are you going to make lunch?" he snapped. She frowned at him, but then he opens his mouth and ruins her fun, "I am not your personal chef." She replied dryly. "Anyone who cooks as bad as you can hardly be considered a chef; I would rather go hungry then some of the shit you serve me." He snapped back. "Fine, then you can make your own meal, good luck working the stove." Bulma replied as she turned around back to her work. Vegeta growled, obviously frustrated as her reaction was not what he had expected. "Get your ass up and make some food!" He demanded, "Drop dead," she said without any conviction in her voice or turning around. She spoke as if she was board.

Vegeta had had about as much as he could take, and he was running out of reasons to keep her around. He fights with himself about killing her constantly, especially at times like this. He was tired of the constant questioning she did; on top of that, she stopped doing the basics around the ship. The everyday cleaning and cooking was left to the service bots, and while the cleaning was a nice touch, the cooking was terrible. He would rather go without, but the level of training that he did he couldn't just skip meals all the time.

There was no way he was going to cook and clean, and he wasn't going to have another meal served by those damned bots. Bulma was going to cook for him or he would kill her, that was it, or so he told himself, again.

"Woman…" he started as he walked towards her."No!" Bulma snapped as she turned around to face him, her eyes ablaze with pent up fire, fire that he had never seen in her before, and would have never expected. She was defiantly more pissed off now than any other time he had ever witnessed. "I am not your maid or your cook." She snapped, folding her arms over her chest and leaning on her left foot. Her tailed lashed behind her giving away just how angry she was. Vegeta had to fight the smirk that he wanted to give her, she was being feisty and she always gave a good verbal spar when she got like this. It's not like he was going to be doing any real sparing with anyone in a while, why not spar in another way. "Do you have any idea what I have been through?" She asked, Vegeta frowned, "who cares." He replied, folding his own arms and challenging her to a staring contest silently. "Obviously not you." She shot back, "I was nearly raped and murdered on a planet not my own, thrown into a regeneration tank with a serious case of claustrophobia. Not to mention that the tank didn't even house my own DNA, so another had to be used, which has changed my own DNA in ways that I can't even describe or explain. I have gained an appendage that I can't control. I am fidgety and angry all the time and I feel like I could just kill you!" She said, "And to make matters worse, I don't know if killing you will make me feel any better because I don't know if it will make me want to do it more or if it will devastate me!" She started to pace in front of him. "And, you are so infuriating with your constant demands, and never demanding what I really want!" She whipped her head in his direction and covered her mouth; she didn't mean to say that.

Vegeta did give her a smirk that time, "and what exactly is it that you wish for me to demand?" he questioned. He really wasn't sure what she was talking about, but he had an idea. She was watching him more and more over the last few weeks, and he wasn't sure if it was because of the changes he noticed in her, but refused to mention, or because of a growing desire that he also refused to acknowledge.

"Ugh! Nothing!" she screeched. "What is happening to me?" She scrubbed her fingers into her scalp. "I feel like I need to run a thousand miles! I have all this pent up energy that I can't expel!" she said, pacing again. "Your energy level is growing, and you're not doing anything to spend the energy you have." Vegeta explained. Bulma stopped her pacing and faced him. "What do you mean?" she asked. Vegeta rolled his eyes and let his hands fall to his sides he obviously had to explain the basics to her. "We train to expel energy." He said. Bulma frowned, "I thought you trained to get stronger."

"Obviously, but in order to do that we have to spend the energy that we have to be able to build more. It is similar to building muscle or endurance, in order to gain more of it you need to use what you have."

Bulma thought about that for a minute, use the energy that she has, but did she really want to gain more? "But if I use it, then won't I gain more of it?" She asked more to herself then to Vegeta, but he responded anyway. "Clearly, but that's the point. Saiyans spend their entire life working towards the goal of being stronger. Strength is status, and status is power." He said.

"But I don't want to become stronger." She said, again to herself. "Your body is not giving you a choice, obviously something has decided that your saiyan DNA is going to be the dominate DNA and is taking over, you will have no choice but to change with it." Vegeta said, "You feel like killing me? That's also saiyan DNA fueling that want, that need." She turned to face him, "and what need is that?" she asked timidly, afraid of the answer that he would give her. "A need to fight, to get stronger, to kill." He said with a smirk that gave her chills. In any other situations that smirk would hold promises of all the pleasures in the world, but today it meant pleasure in causing pain and suffering.

"I don't want that." She whispered disgusted, how can killing and mauling someone be considered pleasurable or even fun? "I don't want any of that! I just want to be me, Bulma, Human Bulma!" she said. Vegeta frowned. "This is your own fault." He said, "You shouldn't have left the ship. If you had stayed in the ship, like I told you…" he gave her a pointed look, "then this would not have happened, I would have gotten here before they found you."

"But it did happen, and now we are here and you need to tell me what I can do to stop it!" She demined. He laughed at her, somewhat amused by her predicament, "you can't stop it, this is now in your blood and the need to fight and get stronger or it will overwhelmed you, eventually you will gain more energy than your body will know what to do with and you will explode." He said, and then gave her a knowing look, "literally."

"What do I do?" she asked him. "You train." Vegeta responded simply with a shrug, as if this was clearly the answer to everything. The look on Bulma's face said that she had no intention of doing that, and she didn't. Why would she want to become a brainless brute? "I don't want to become like you!" she snapped at him.

"And what exactly do you know about me!" Vegeta sneered at her. "Only what you have seen, and only what I have told you." He snapped. "You knew where I came from before I came to earth. You knew what I had done, and you still accepted me. Now, just because you actually witness what it was that I am, you suddenly don't want anything to do with me." He wasn't angry, he was more disgusted, because he cared about what she thought, and even though he knew he shouldn't. He didn't want to care, it snuck up on him, one day he could have cared less, then the next, he realized that he cared enough to make him fill guilty, and guilt was not something he was used to feeling, and he didn't like it. He should feel satisfied in his victory, satisfied that he finally was able to answer the call of his blood, and finally fight and kill. Though that killing was not at all a challenge, just to watch the look on their faces, the feeling of the adrenaline as is rushed through his veins, and the sound and smell of fear from all of the men he killed.

Bulma didn't have a response for him; she wasn't sure what to say, so she just started at him. What do you say to someone who verbalized the truth? She didn't care before because she didn't see it. It was an out of sight out of mind sort of thing, but then she saw what he was actually capable of, and things changed. She had never witnessed someone actually being killed before. Sure, she knew it happened from time to time, and anyone who was protecting the earth from the forces in space were bound to have to kill from time to time. Hell, even Goku had killed to protect the earth and his friends and family, but somehow that seemed different. Maybe it was because he didn't enjoy it, that he didn't actually want to kill anyone. While Vegeta understood the need to kill from time to time, but also seemed to be indifferent to it, almost wanting to. She wouldn't go so far as to say he enjoyed it, she assumed not, how was she to know? He barley showed any emotion other then irritation, frustration, anger, and hate. As if all other emotions were weaknesses. He didn't show any pleasure in killing the two who tried to kill her, and she was passed out when he killed the rest of the men at that base, so there really wasn't any evidence to show that he actually enjoyed it.

She realized after the research she had been doing on the saiyan race that there was a high possibility that he did enjoy killing, and causing people to suffer. They were raised on violence, not love after all, to be proud of the killing they did, or their victory. He would never understand those emotions because he wasn't human, he wasn't raised to understand them or even know what they were, much less accept them. None of this changed how she actually felt about him, she realized, it was just harder to swallow when you were in the thick of it.

She frowned at him, he was right though, she didn't know anything about him, and only what she had assumed to be true based on something she had no insight to. "Regardless of what I do or don't know, I know that I don't want to be a ruthless killer." She said simply, conceding to his accusation. "In this galaxy, its kill or be killed." She shook her head at his reply. "Why? Why does it have to be like that? Why can't people just get along with each other? Why can't people understand that we all have something to contribute to this life? We can work together, but you have to make the effort?" She realized that everything she said fell on deaf ears, that his views were different, because he had seen the horrors that were out there first hand, while she stayed on Earth and was protected and shielded away from it all.

"Because there are those out there who are drunk on power, and they will do anything they can to exert their power over you and make you understand that the only reason you live is because they allow it." He said, his eyes seemed a bit glassy as he said it, but other than that there was no other emotion. Bulma shook her head as tears welled in her eyes. "Frieza is dead!" She almost shouted. Vegeta turned his eyes to her, and he scowled down at her. "That doesn't matter, there is always someone stronger!"

"Like who?" She demanded, "Why can't there be a way to join forces with other planets and empires? We could work together to build an army to be able to fight against something stronger? But no! Your people would rather die than to do that!"

"My people are dead!" He bellowed. Bulma gasped and took a step back, she didn't mean to say it like that, to bring up that memory for him even though she was sure it was there lingering at the surface of his mind, and she seemed to forget that he wasn't human, he looked human enough, for the most part, but he wasn't, and that was hard to remember. "I didn't…"

"You don't think I know what I have become?" He sneered at her. "It's laughable!" He said, "pathetic even!" He continued looking away from her, refusing to show her his vulnerabilities. "The Prince of all Saiyans. Ha!" Clinching his fits, and his teeth he turned back to her with a snarl. "I have nothing, no people, no legacy, and I can't even attain the legendary while a third class idiot achieved it before me!" His voice was dark and cold; his anger rolling off his body in waves. Bulma was sure that if she could see aura she would see the red energy rolling over him and filling the room. But he had never directed his anger at her like this before. "The only thing I have left is to reach super saiyan." He said, taking a step towards her. She back up instinctively. "That's why I am here in the first place, why we are on this mission, so that you can gather the material you need to build my gravity simulator so that I can finally reach that goal and kill that idiot once and for all!"

He now had her back into the wall, "but I am starting to think that this plan is just as useless as all the rest." Bulma pushed herself into the wall as much as she could. She had to admit to herself she was, for the first real time, scared of him. "And you…" he pointed and accusing finger at her as he continued to approach her. "Your arrogance… You think you are better than me because you have some moralistic idea that killing is bad, evil even, and that fighting will lead you down that path." He was so close to her now and Bulma didn't know what to do or where to go.

"All high and mighty as if humans are better simply because they more intelligent in ways of technology. You are no better than me, the only difference is where you put your pride." He said, voicing her exact thoughts from earlier, and then his hand was around her neck. She instantly gripped his fingers and tried to pry them away. He narrowed his eyes are her and grinned a chilling evil grin that made her shiver, he truly was frightening, she never truly realized it until now, he had been neutral to keep her family from running in fear all the time. "I should just be rid of you once and for all." He said, and he squeeze her neck, tightening slowly.

Bulma's eyes widened as she started to gasp for breath. She was clawing at him trying to force him to release her but it was no use, she wasn't strong enough, and the worst part was that he wasn't even trying; he was using his own strength without any energy to back it up.

Suddenly, she froze; energy was the key to everything. She didn't know how she could even think at a time like this, but a feeling welled into her body and she was desperate to save herself that she allowed it without even knowing or thinking of the consequences. She closed her eyes and held her breath, trying to use that as a way to keep the darkness from engulfing her. Then, something snapped like a twig and energy began to well inside of her as if she turned on a water faucet, it just kept coming. Unsure of what to do with it, Bulma tried to visualize a wall, and she somehow forced this wall between herself and Vegeta. She couldn't explain what it was or how she formed it, but it was there, this invisible wall, so she propelled it forward.

Vegeta could have withstood, but he was so surprised by the sudden rise in energy that it caught him off guard. He let go and took a few steps back, he looked down at his hand and couldn't help the surprised look on his face. His hand was smoking slightly and the glove had been burnt off in places leaving his fingers and part of his palm exposed. He flexed it a couple of times and looked up at Bulma as she slid down the wall gasping for breath.

"You have more energy than I thought you would in this short time." He said simply. She glared up at him, unable to speak just yet, still gasping for breath. "Either you train, or I will kill you."

Bulma glared at him harder after his ultimatum, but she didn't have much choice in the matter. After this display of dominance, he clearly meant to kill her if she became a nuisance to her. She didn't want to agree, but she would rather not die on this trip, so she reluctantly nodded.

He walked back up to her and leaned over her, Llesson number one, get that thing around your waist!" he snapped and then flicked the tip of her tail with his finger and she hissed with the pain, but quickly retracted it. "It's a weakness and it will immobilize you." Then he turned around and retreated to his room.

She growled after him, it would figure he would find a way to manipulate her. The show he just put on was more about the frustration he felt about displaying even the slightest bit vulnerability around her, rather than forcing her to train. He truly was a bastard!

Vegeta slammed the door to his room and fought the urge to punch in the door. How could he allow her to see him like that? He was outraged with himself for even letting her get to him in any way. He was so angry that she witnessed his vulnerability that he was going to kill her, but her shaky control of her energy surprised him. Not only did he not expect her to have as much energy as she did, but there was no way she should have been able to control it. What was it that allowed her to do it? Was it desperation? He remembered that Kakarot's brat displayed the same "hidden power" as they had put it, but it really was the brain's way of going into survival mode.

He shook his head and scrubbed his hands through his hair. He should have killed her long ago, but every time he even gets close to her he would find a reason not to. Just like now, he couldn't finish it, even if she hadn't stepped in and used her energy to stop him, he still wouldn't have been able to kill her. She would have passed out and he would have left her there. He didn't understand this attachment that he had for her, how had it formed? He was so angry he wanted to destroy something, but there was nothing to destroy.

He lay down on the small bed in the room and threw his arm over his eyes. She had seemed so disgusted with him, as if somehow she was better them him, but it was more about the killing then anything. She was ok with it as long as she wasn't a part of it, it was hypocritical and it angered him to no end, this holier than thou attitude that she displayed and didn't even know it.

That is what had led him to finally make the choice to try to kill her, but then the fear she displayed excited him, and not in a way he had expected. What was he going to do? The longer this goes on, the more chance of something happening, and he wasn't in any shape to do…. that, or have any part of it. She was human and she would expect more then he could or was willing to give her.

He scrubbed his hands through his hair again, why did he care?! He stood up suddenly and started to pace the room. It would be business, that was it. He would teach her how to control her energy so that she wouldn't unknowingly kill them both, and he refused to allow this, whatever it was, to grow any more than it already had. He would overcome this, or he would kill her to stop it. He clinched his fists in determination. There really wasn't much choice now, he could say he was going to kill her, but he knew he wouldn't. Might as well train her, and then when they were finished with this mission, he would deposit her back at home, let her build his simulator, then he would leave and not come back until he reached the legendary. Then, he would finally claim his birth right.

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A/N: Sorry it has been a little while everyone! I started school back up, and because this is a master's program its more demanding of my time. But I promise I will not forget about you, or this story! :)

I wanted to point out that I had a few questions about the color of Bulma's tail, I thought I pointed that out in the last chapter, Vegeta made a comment about it, but it might have been too subtle, so I put a bit of a part in there for you all who wondered, just so you would know! I hope you enjoy this chapter, and please review!

I double checked and updated the chapter, if there are any more discrepancies please let me know! :D


	8. Chapter 8

DISCLAIMER: I DO NOT OWN DBZ

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"Again." Vegeta's voice echoed through the ship. It was the same routine over and over, left punch, right punch, left punch, right kick. Right, left, right, kick. Bulma was frustrated with doing the same thing over and over. Vegeta just directed and took the offensive. He constantly critiqued her form and movements as if perfection was expected from the very beginning. He never complemented her, only gave a curt nod then directed her to repeat, if not then he would give her direction on the correct way, then they would repeat over and over. Bulma was seriously tired of the repeats.

First it was just punching, Vegeta started with showing her how to properly hold her fist, which he seemed to be the most frustrated about because he had to keep correcting her. At one point, he fixed her fingers, and then squeezed a little, glaring at her, silently telling her to stop moving them out of place. She scowled back at him. once he was satisfied she could hold her fists right, and punch well with the right hand, because she was right handed, he moved to the left. This was, of course harder. He was more patient with that arm, but not by much, and she was thankful for the little bit of slack he gave her. He only let her practice with it a little longer then the right. Then it was proper stance, bend your knees, shoulder length apart, right foot behind left, left arm up and right arm back. "this way, you can swing with your right hand, and use your left to block." He had explained, and then demonstrated. "This is the most common stance taught in saiyan culture." He added. Bulma was a bit surprised he was willing to even give her any information on the subject. Getting anything out of him about saiyan culture was like pulling teeth without Novocain.

Once she had learned the stance, without falling on her face when she tried to punch, and step forward correctly, they moved on. He taught her all the basics on how to punch, how to kick, and how to block. He showed them to her, and then had her mimic him. They did the same routine for days, and he stood behind her so that he could correct her anytime she was out of line, or did something wrong. Bulma also had some difficulty with keeping her tail in check, it would slip out from her waist and Vegeta would promptly flick it with his fingers, and she would tighten it back in place, with a resounding "Ow!" to follow. He never said anything to her, but she knew it irritated him. "It's so hard to control!" She had whined. Vegeta hadn't responded, only ignored her whining.

During all of this, Bulma had noticed that Vegeta seemed to be more relaxed around her. She thought maybe it was because they were doing something he was confident about. Not that he was less confident in other situations, but he knew far more about the art of fighting, then the art of science and it showed. It was a trade off; something he was a master of allowed them to be in his space rather than hers. In the beginning, he seemed to do all he could not to touch her. He would direct her verbally on what to do, but that wasn't really working, he became frustrated and moved her body for her. After that, it was almost as if he tried to find excuses to touch her. Things like, moving her hip this way, pushing her foot that way, rotating her arm, his hands on her hips, or her shoulders to pull them back. Bulma had to admit that she did kind of enjoy his touch, but she was trying to focus on the here and now, not day dream about what other things he could do with his hands.

And now, they are doing this same routine over and over again, and have been for days. She asked him when they could move on, and he told her once she got it right every time. "This is creating muscle memory. I can explain it further if you don't understand." He said. She had frowned at him and told him she wasn't stupid and knew that muscle memory meant. He only smirked at her and told her she was an idiot. She improved that day, determined to prove to him that she was getting better.

That wasn't the only thing that was changing for her either. Her body had changed significantly. She was leaner, and more muscular. She felt faster, but couldn't really explain how, and she felt lighter. As if she had lost weight. When she first noticed it she weighed herself and found that she actually had gained weight, not lost it. She frowned at the scale. Muscle does weigh more the fat, but it didn't make her feel any better thinking that. But looking in the mirror did. Her clothes were looser, and she just felt good, and she looked better too, at least she thought so. And she was sure Vegeta thought so too. She spent a lot of time watching him. More than she was willing to actually admit to even herself.

She also noticed that he spent a lot of time watching her. She felt like he watched her and played it off that he was watching her form, so he could correct her, and make her a better fighter, always improving. Bulma wasn't stupid and knew that that was part of it, but it wasn't the only reason, at least she hopped it wasn't.

Bulma was fed up with the repeating; constantly doing the same thing over and over, it was like a broken record, she was sure she could do it in her sleep. "Again." Vegeta said, as she had just finished the last round of punches and kicks. She folded her arms and glared at him. "I want to do something else." She said with a pout. Vegeta straitened and frowned back at her. "You're not ready for something different." He replied. She shook her head, "I am not doing another one of those punches or kicks unless it's actually fighting. This is so boring!" Vegeta folded his arms and attempted to stare her down. He was debating; she could see it in his eyes. She wondered if he was trying to calculate how much damage he could actually do. Bulma also knew that her abilities were either there at full swing, or not at all, and she was having difficulty controlling them. She couldn't even hover for a few seconds, once she gets in the air, her scientific mind takes over and she falls to the ground. Vegeta tried to convince her that this is still science; just a different form and once she accepted that it would all work together. She still couldn't see how her energy could lift her off the ground.

"Fine." Vegeta finally replied. He walked around the room and encapsulated anything that would get in the way and tossed the capsules in the closet. Bulma watched, somewhat surprised that he even attempted to clean anything. "is there are a reason for that?" she asked, he nodded but didn't reply as he took his place back in front of her. he started her down for a second with a scowl. "you don't have much of a chance." He said, "in fact, you aren't even going to get in a single jab before I take you down." He said, getting into a stance.

She gave him a familiar smirk and mirrored his stance, while tightening her tail reassuringly around her waist. That was not going to be her down fall today. He grinned at her in a way that made a chill run up her spine, and she couldn't decide if it scared her or turned her on.

Something was happening to her that she was not prepared for. Her body tightened and she felt her body temperature rise. She got a chill and fought to show it in her body. She could swear she felt her blood literally increase in its temperature, and she felt restless with anticipation at the outcome of this spar. The only way to describe the feeling was as if she was a little kid about to go on a roller coaster for the first time, scared and excited, but more excited than scared.

There must have been a look on her face because Vegeta's grin widened and he motioned for her to charge. She took no time in aiming straight for his face with the intent to wipe that stupid grin right off it, but she missed him and found only air. The next thing she felt was his right arm around her torso, while his left held her left behind her. "You're too slow." He taunted, and then let her go with a hard push; she had to use all her might to keep from running into the wall. "You need to keep your eye on your opponent, don't assume he will be there, always feel for his movements." He said, still teaching. She gave him a curt nod, and turned around to charge again, but stopped short, he was already gone; she turned to see him just as he was driving his elbow into her back, but off pure determination, she jumped back fast enough to miss it. She got her footing, and charged again, this time intent on faking a hit to the face, then sliding down to try to trip him. He laughed as he jumped over her and gave her a swift kick to the hip. She landed on her side with a groan. "get up." He laughed, and she got to her feet as fast as she could, rubbing her hip. It didn't hurt as much as she thought it would, especially since the last time she actually hit him she broke her hand. "hurt?" He taunted again, and she responded with a scowl, he couldn't seem to get that damn grin off his face. "No!" she protested. "good, keep going." He said, and did her a courtesy and got back into position. She frowned, and calculated her position. He was going to get her no matter what she did, she had to think ahead, had to understand what his reaction would be to all of her charges. This was especially hard because she didn't think like a fighter. "how do I know where you go when I don't know how to think like you?" She asked. "That's your problem, while you want to calculate and analyze your opponent, you want to think in the way they think, not the way you think. I can guarantee you that I won't go left if you go right." He said.

What did that mean? He was giving her clues, but she couldn't decipher them. She was the smartest person on Earth, she could hack this puzzle. She took too long and didn't realize he had moved behind her. "still too slow." He said, and he gripped her left arm behind her back with his left hand, and drove her into the wall. "This is what I meant by muscle memory, you need to be so in tune with your craft that you don't even think, you just move." He said, pushing her harder against the wall. "one thing you have going for you is the ZenKai." He said, "if you don't die, you'll only get stronger." He taunted her.

She tried to turn her head to see him but couldn't, he did her a favor and let her go, back up and motioning with his hand for her to get back into position. "ZenKai?" She questioned. "I read a little bit about it, but I don't fully understand it." She said. Vegeta shook his head, indicating that he wouldn't give her any more details.

"You wanted to spar, so get on with it." He demanded. She nodded and went for him again, he dodged, she turned and tried again, he dodged. She tried a different approach and went for the left but he dodged that too. Over and over, she charged he dodged. She finally growled, "Stop playing with me!" she screamed at him and managed to jump on his back.

Vegeta couldn't help but laugh at her feeble attempts, "woman, you are nowhere near my strength or skill, you can't even hurt a Vegeta bug, let alone me." She punched him in the head for that jab, and he grabbed her foot, and pulled her hard, she tried to keep her grip around him but only resulted in hurting herself, and finally let go. He held her up by her foot and looked down on her as she clawed at the floor. "Let me go!" She screeched at him. He watched as she growled and tried to claw at his feet. "like an Earth cat." He said, "she took her loose foot and kicked him in the face, which resulted in him finally letting her go. He wiped at his mouth, and chuckled. "I barley felt that." He said.

He was being an arrogant jerk, and she was sick of it. She took a couple of steps back from him trying to calculate her next move. She was feeling hot, and she couldn't figure out why, they hadn't even moved around much, her repeating moves demanded more work then they put in. but she was feeling hotter and hotter. Vegeta stood straight and frowned. "you need to get control." He said. Bulma responded with a quizzical look, she looked around a bit and then back at Vegeta. "Control of what?" She said.

"Your energy you idiot, you're going to lose control." He said. She looked down at her hands, and frowned. The heat in her body was rising, and the more she looked at her hands, the hotter they became. It was so hot she was sure it would burn, but it didn't. It was the strangest feeling, and yet she recognized it. "I'm not sure what's happening." She confessed. She focused more on her hands, and the energy seemed to move from her body to focus right there. Then she saw it, the energy it's self. Vegeta was suddenly next to her, and he grabbed her wrist. "Concentrate it all here." He said, holding up her hand up slightly. The more she concentrated, the larger and brighter it became. "It's purple." She said, "why is it purple?" She asked, "It's different for everyone, and for what you focus it for." He said with a shrug. "you need to absorb it back into your body." He said. She gave a nervous laugh, "right, back into my body." She said nervously and stared at it the energy for a moment, "how exactly do I do that?" Vegeta resisted the urge to roll his eyes at her, and settle on a glare instead, "the same way you created it." He said, as if this was the most obvious thing. She tried, she really did, but it wasn't working. "Idiot!" He snapped at her, and placed his hands over the energy sphere she had created. He locked eyes with her as he pulled the energy from her hands into his own. His stare piercing. Bulma was mesmerized by him and his glare, and the way his hands shielded some of the light made his eyes look like black molten lava, swirling with pent up emotion, she thought she recognized it, but refused to allow her mind to actually analyze it. She swore she could feel his energy when he took the energy from her. There was a presence that she was somewhat familiar with whenever he was near her, as if she could actually feel his dominance, his demand for attention no matter where he went.

Once he absorbed the rest of the energy, she closed her eyes, not wanting to allow him to see what she was sure he already had, she shivered with the feeling and thoughts that he was provoking in her. That was defiantly a turn on. When she opened her eyes he was so close to her she gasped. He only started at her, but she could tell there was a battle going on in his eyes, but she wasn't sure what. He gave her mixed signals and she wanted so desperately to just reach out and kiss him, her instincts finally won the battle, because she leaned into him slightly, but he backed away. "That's enough for now." He said, and jumped into the air.

Disappointed, Bulma immediately bent over and pretended to stretch her legs, while she tried to catch her breath, not because of the spar, but because of her racing heart. That experience went in a direction she was not prepared for. "We'll start again after lunch." She heard Vegeta say and she only nodded in reply, not that he expected or wanted one. She sat on the floor and looked up at Vegeta as he did his own training. As she watched, Bulma lay down on the floor and stretched her body out and sighed with relief that the cold floor brought to her. She silently thanked herself for not putting in carpeting. It was a part of her original planning but with the amount of time it would take to complete Vegeta basically told her no. She argued of course, but she decided that she should choose her battles, and this wasn't really worth the trouble, so she gave in.

She is thankful for that now. Maybe he does know more then he lets on. She shook her head and snorted to herself. As she stretched her legs she watched as Vegeta flew higher towards the ceiling and started boxing with an imaginary opponent. He wasn't moving very fast, only going through the motions, as if to remind himxelf and his muscles what it was like.

When he was training her, he only blocked and corrected her. He never actually took the offensive with her, with the exception of that one time; he would leave the offensive to her. She supposed that had to do with the fact that he was far superior in strength then she was, probably even more then she hoped to be. Bulma frowned at that thought; she didn't hope to be strong at all. Why would she think that? She shook her head once and continued her stretching; she is an engineer, a scientist, not a fighter.

Bulma took a few deep breaths as she watched Vegeta move. He was so graceful, so precise. When he moved like he did now, it was as if he was displaying art, and rather than painting on a canvas, he expressed his art with his body, like a dancer. She rolled her eyes at that part, Vegeta was anything but delicate, but somehow, he was graceful. She couldn't help but be awed by him when he moved like that. She watched him until he glanced down at her, then she immediately looked away. Once he knew she was watching she would stop, otherwise he would find ways to ruin her pleasant thoughts about him with comments like, "take a picture it will last you longer" or "getting your fill?" it wasn't that he didn't know that she watched him, she was sure he did, but if he didn't actually see her do it, then he feigned ignorance to it all, while Bulma on the other hand tried to convince herself that being mesmerized by him was not an act of attraction, but just admiration on his dedication to his craft. She could respect that, as she herself suffered from the same obsession, only with knowledge.

She frowned, realizing they were more alike then she cared to admit to even herself. She shook her head to clear the unwelcome thoughts, and got up off the floor. She headed to the area where the kitchen went and un-capsuled it. She walked to the closet to get the food capsules that were stored there. When she opened the closet and went to reach for the capsule she stopped suddenly, she was sure she stocked this closet just a couple of days ago, and it was already empty with the exception of the one capsule. She looked at the label; this wouldn't be enough for the both of them. She must have forgotten to restock it, but that didn't add up. Shaking her head, she turned to head for storage.

Vageta watched Bulma walk out of the main room. Once she was gone, he felt a tension leave his body that he didn't realize was there. Every time she was in the room it became hard and harder to ignore her. He realized that things were becoming too familiar for his liking. They were closer now that he was training her then they ever were, and he was uncomfortable with the changes in their relationship. He fight with himself constantly, telling himself he should just kill her and be done with it, but something else was refusing to let him.

Now, he finds himself eager to teach her, eager to get her to a place where they could spar. Obviously today was not a good example of that, she was nowhere near ready for that type of activity. In the beginning he thought he would just have her dive right into it and learn as he continued to beat the hell out of her, just like all saiyans. Then he realized she couldn't even punch correctly. These things saiyan children learned at a very young age, to actually have to start at square one was out of his realm, and he did only what he thought would be best, repeating the stances. She was clearly board of that, and truth be told, so was he. That's why he even agreed to spar with her.

At first it was entertaining, too finally move around and actually go through the paces, but then she was just too easy to overcome. After he pinned her the first time, everything started to morph into something else. Going from fun to arousing. He had to rely on his iron clad control to keep from allowing her to notice. Then, when she was getting angry, and her instincts took over, that energy she was creating was not a normal energy sphere. The color of it was strange; his Gallic Gun was purple too, so at first he didn't think much of it. Until he took it from her.

An energy sphere has a part of you in it, its energy that you created from your body, and every time you expel it, there are traces of what you were experiencing at that time in them. In most cases, over time, you learn to put more energy and less emotion into them, but Bulma is inexperienced, and she still can't decipher the difference between emotional energy and physical energy, and both of them have a play in any battle.

So when he took it, he didn't even think about what it would be, of course it was her own physical energy, but also her emotional energy as well, and she was just as aroused as he was. Once he absorbed it, it took all he had not to act on what she was feeling. Uncomfortable with the situation, he ended it and left her standing there. He didn't think she even realized what happened; only that she turned her energy into an actual physical thing.

Vegeta shook his head to clear it, things were getting out of control, and he wasn't sure what to do. The more saiyan she became, the more difficult it was to resist her. She already had personality traits that reminded him of saiyan woman that he already was attracted to, and now, she was taking on physical characteristics as well. He also knew the excitement she felt when they started to spar, there was no way at this point she couldn't feel it. She didn't feel that way the first time, when he realized that she needed to start with the basics rather than just jump into it, but today was different. She was calculating, and working in her head how to best get the upper hand. She will soon be just as skilled as he is, and with her intellect, she will be a force to reckon with once he has her ready. Vegeta couldn't help the feeling of pride he felt because it would be him who would teach her. He frowned, feeling attracted and pride for her. That needed to stop.

Down in the storage room Bulma had completed her inventory and took what she needed, then marked what she took on the inventory log she kept to be sure she had an accurate count. She looked the inventory over a second time because something still didn't add up. As she flipped the pages she noticed that there was less than they should have at this point in their flight. Confused she counted the inventory a second time; she excluded what she took to bring back up to the main room of the ship. "Why do we have less?" She asked out loud to the room. "We should have more than this." she said looking down at the capsules she had. She frowned at them, and picked up the inventory log again. Flipping through the pages, she tried to find the reason for the shortage. She went back several pages, and scanned each pages, she got to a page and stopped, staring at it for a second. "Damn it!" she said and rushed up stairs with the capsules she needed to stock the upstairs closet, and the inventory log.

"Vegeta, we have a problem." She called out as she entered the main area of the ship flipping through pages of the inventory log that she brought with her again, she had to be sure she was right. Vegeta landed next to her ready for her explanation silently. She looked up at him, the concern evident on her face. "We are running out of food" She confessed.

"What? You said we had enough for 3 months after we arrived back to earth."

Bulma nodded. "We did." She said, flipping pages on the inventory log and pointed at her scribbled numbers and writings. "That was before we lost six months supply in our game of chicken with asteroids, and before my physical change." she said frustrated yet again at the changes she couldn't control. "what does your change have to do with our food supply?" He asked.

Bulma flipped the pages again, "see here?" she pointed, "it's because I am eating at least five times what I used to!" she snapped. "Saiyans and their impossible appetites!" She added, angrily. "I seemed to have inherited it. And now that you have me training, my body craves more food!" She slammed the log on the counter of the kitchenette and folded her arms glaring at him. "I calculated how much food we needed based on the volume that we normally consume prior to this trip. Now with these changes, I have exhausted the supply I calculated for me only, that went out weeks ago, and now we're using the supply I brought for you, and the worst part is we will be out of our meat supply in 2 days, 3 at the most."

Vegeta frowned, this was not good news. He was sure that Turles was following them, why wouldn't he be? He seemed to want to bring back something that died a long time ago, and Vegeta wasn't sure he wanted to go down that path again. To make matters worse Bulma was more of a threat because she has the characteristics of a half-breed. Any half-breed could be just as strong as any third class saiyan, and according the rest of the galaxy, that was stronger than most. They were an even bigger threat now. Vegeta himself could take down entire solar systems; two saiyans could do so much more damage. There was a reason why Frieza wanted the saiyans as part of his army, and a reason he wanted them under his thumb at all times, keeping them on a short leash and in check, because he knew, that if he didn't, they would over through him and they would destroy him in the worst of ways.

"We have to stop." Bulma said bringing Vegeta out of his thoughts, but he didn't reply. He had to think of something, come up with a plan of some kind. Find a way to get through this. He wasn't a runner and facing his issue head on was what he preferred, but this issue was one he didn't want any part of. He had no intentions of following in the tyrants footsteps, especially not after he destroyed his home and people. Turles was proof that there were saiyans out there, but there wasn't enough for him to rebuild. And where would they go? They would have to take over a planet to be able to settle, and it would take decades for them to be re-established like they were on Vegeta. The only thing they could do at this point is see where they were and where they could go, he would have to deal with Turles if he showed up, this time he would kill him.

He was about to ask Bulma to look up the neighboring planets but stopped short when he saw her leaning against the counter, a strange look on her face. Bulma shook her head and stood strait, and started for the stairs to the main console. Once she was up there, she leaned against the railing for a second before she sat in the captain's chair. Vegeta was behind her in a second, but she still didn't say anything. He scowled at her back. Her energy was fluctuating, it was going up and down, higher then lower. He did notice this before, but it was more subtle, like her body was still adjusting to the changes, but this, this was cause for concern. He shook his head, not that he should be concerned, what happened to her was not his problem.

He moved beside her angrily and watched as she manipulated the screen. "This is where we are." She said, as she used a red arrow to point their exact location. "This is the closest planet to us." She said. Using another arrow to point to its location, "Do you recognize it?" She asked.

Vegeta shook his head. "I haven't been to this area. The information here is the information that was collected by the scouts that Frieza sent to find more planets to take over." He said. "Widen the view." He said, leaning in some. Bulma put in a command to zoom out, and more planets and solar systems were visible. "This here." He said, pointing to a nearby solar system. "There is a trade planet here; we should be able to get what we need there. The down side is that saiyans are well known here, and we might cause panic." He said. She shook her head, "of course they are."

"We don't have much choice, if we want to finish this mission, then we are going to have to stop here. How far is it?" She calculated the distance, "six days." She said, frowning. "We are going to have to ration our meat; the rest of the food will be fine." Vegeta shook his head, "humans, you forget about the main source of energy, protein is the only fuel the body needs, all the other crap is just crap." He said. "Maybe for saiyans, but humans need the minerals and vitamins in produce as well? We can't just live off meat and only meat." She said. Vegeta shook his head. "Well you can now."

Bulma was about to say something when she suddenly felt dizzy. She leaned against the main console and decided to just set the new course now. She needed to lie down. After setting the course, she made her way down the steps. Vegeta watched her go curiously, and paid close attention to her as she made her way to the kitchen. She stopped at the counter, and leaned against it. "Vageta?" She said, and then collapsed.

Vegeta jumped from the bridge and landed next to her. She was breathing heavily and she was sweating profusely. "Bulma?" He asked, but she didn't response. "Damn." This was not good. Why would she suddenly collapse like that? He tried to wake her, but she wasn't responding to anything, poking, shaking, slapping, nothing. He stood and looked around the room. There was a first aid kit around there somewhere, he knew, but he wasn't sure where. He saw something in the wall near the exit and examined it, he couldn't read the characters, but assumed it was what he needed and opened it. "What the hell?" He looked through it and there was nothing he could use, bandages, and anesthetics, that was the only thing in there. He put it back frustrated.

He finally decided he would have to just wait, either she lived or she died. If she was strong enough to live, then she deserved to, but if she died, then she wasn't worth the time anyway. He needed to go to this planet either way; he could survive a few months without meat as long as he didn't train. Six days of not training would be torturous, but he could keep his training light if he rationed the food they had. There were only two days of mean, he could stretch it out.

He picked Bulma up and moved her to her room; he laid her on her bed and covered her. If she was sweating like that she must have a fever, but was concerned him more was the constant fluctuation of her energy. It was still erratic, and it didn't seem to be changing; only time would tell. He gave her one last look over, and then left the room. He wouldn't enter it again until they landed, and he would see if she was alive or dead.

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AN: Sorry it took so long guys! I do not go to traditional school, and that means school all year round. I am in the MBA program, and this means lots and lots of homework. Also, I just started training for a new job and it requires a lot more hours then I am used to putting in, along with all the other wifely and motherly duties that I have, so this has been a work in progress for some time. Fear not, I will continue and persevere! Please, Please review. It keeps me going. :D


	9. Chapter 9

DISCLAIMER: I DO NOT OWN DBZ.

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For the next six days Vegeta meditated, performed a light work out after every meal, and then meditated some more. He was trying to understand the changes that he was experiencing. Why his attraction to Bulma was so strong. He concluded, after much deliberation, that it was because at this point, factory made or not, she was the only female saiyan, and that meant his primal nature was trying to force him to procreate. It was the only logical thought he could come up with, and since it was tied to his instincts, then it was what he agreed with. This meant that he didn't naturally have an attraction to her, it was his primal nature that did.

The computer sounded that they were about to approach the gravitational pull of the planet. Vegeta jumped up to the main console and tried to figure out how to land the ship. He pushed buttons over and over, only to come up with nothing. He finally slammed his fist into the console, cracking it slightly when the computer stated "Voice command activated." "Land the ship!" He demanded, not sure what else to say, only that simple and to the point would be best. "Initiating auto pilot landing sequence." The ship said. He nodded, pleased with himself for figuring it out without Bulma. He jumped down and went to her room. She was still alive, but barley, she was apparently stronger then she looked or acted. He was angry with himself for thinking this, and being in any way shape or form satisfied with that.

Once he entered her room, he moved to her side, and covered her and then found the controls on the side of her cot. He pressed them and straps came out to secure her in place. Once done, he closed the door and headed back to the bridge area. He strapped himself in, and waited. It wouldn't take long once they were in the atmosphere, and he could already see the flames kiss the outside of the ship caused by entering the atmosphere.

It was a bumpy ride, much more so then the last landing they hand, and far more then when he landed his space pod. He assumed that the auto pilot was just set to get there without casualties, while when Bulma landed the ship, she actually took calculated movements. He briefly wondered if the additional turbulence was due to the amount of the pollution on the planet, as well as the size. He was brought out of his thoughts at the site of three planes coming to greet him. They flanked the ship on both sides, while one was directly in front of them. "Unidentified craft please identify yourself or we will be forced to fire." He growled, great, he didn't know how to work the communication controls. "Open communication!" He demanded, and the ships computer responded with "Communication open." At least she made it easy, must have been just in case of emergencies, like this one. he had to give the woman credit, she was smarter then she looked, or acted for that matter.

Vegeta decided to just grab the bull by the horns. "I am Prince Vageta of the planet Vageta." He started. "I am here to restock our food supply, as well as seek medical attention for my companion." He said. "A saiyan?!" One of the pilots gasped, fear clear in his voice, "Who sent you?" Another demanded. "I have been sent by no one, I am here only to seek medical aid, and food."

"You can't land here!" Another pilot replied. "Frieza no longer controls this sector!"

"frieza is dead! We need food and medical aid!" Vegeta replied again.

"Negative, you do not have clearance to land." The pilot stated.

"I don't have a choice, once the landing sequence is started, I cannot stop it. We only need medical aid and food." He said again, irritated that they wouldn't just accept that. "Report to the captain at once, we have sayings landing without authorization!" Vegeta decided to brace himself for his landing, he could take them all if they started shooting, and they knew that. They were smart not to fire on him, they must realize what they were dealing with.

The ship landed smoother then he thought it would, but still bounced him around a bit. Once landed, Vegeta immediately stood and went to collected Bulma, if he came out with her as she was, they may just let him off the ship, he would rather not take the time to fight his way through, although he wasn't going to exclude that option. He un-strapped her quickly and picked her up, making sure she was secure, and headed for the door. The door opened smoothly and the ramp automatically extended. There were solders outside, and what seemed to be an officer at the site. He shook his head and walked down the ramp. "Prince Vageta?" The officer questions. "Word is you were dead." He said nervously, meeting Vegeta at the foot of the ramp. "Well obviously that was false."

"Yes, I see that." He said, adjusting his glasses, "what have you got there?" the office asked while pointing to the obviously un-conscious woman in his arms. "Wounded, she needs medical aid" Vegeta replied in a monotone, he was not happy that he was being interrogated at the door. That being said, he should have expected nothing less after the fall of Frieza. The Saiyans did nothing but terrorize the galaxy while under his rule. Vegeta wouldn't be surprised if every planet they visit for rest of his life reacted in much the same way, some may even attack on sight. This planet has laws and rules in place, and they can only attack someone who attacked them, being a trade planet, it would be bad for business if they just shot everyone down because they thought they may be a threat.

Vegeta turned towards the office, and gave him a scowl, "as I said before, we are here for food and medical aid." He shifted Bulma slightly to make the point that she was un-conscious. Normally he would just blast his way though, but she needed help now, and the more he killed the less willing they would be to help her.

"Who is she?" The officer asked, continuing to ignore the issue in front of him. Vegeta was beginning to lose his patients with the man, and had half a mind to just blast him to smithereens, but remained as calm as he could for being questioned so ignorantly. "If I could get to a doctor and get her treatment started, I will answer your questions, but right now you are wasting my time!" Vegeta snapped, the officer jumped slightly, "yes of course, right this…" he was cut off when Vegeta flew off, he was sure to power up more then he needed to startle the whole team. Vegeta didn't need directions, he knew where he was going; he had been to this planet many times. This was one of the only free trade planets there were. While the planet was considered free trade, Frieze still frequently visited, and the leaders of the planet and Frieza had an "understanding". While Frieza did not "oversee" the planet, they were still to report who came in and who went out. While Vegeta was young he was oblivious to this agreement. That was until he found an interesting past time activity that Frieza wasn't very happy to hear about.

Frieza beat him bloody that day, and after that, He would come with Raditz and Nappa, they paid off the owner of one of the Brothels and one of the landing bays. This allowed them to come and go without notice, which allowed them to stay under the radar. It was the only place he could go to feel like he was actually the prince he truly was, and not a lap dog that Frieze turned him into.

Vegeta landed and entered the medical facilities with haste. Once inside he demanded to be seen right away. Everyone knowing of the saiyans decided it was in their best interest to comply. The medical staff quickly escorted Vegeta into one of the rooms, but hurried out as soon as they could while calling to all the other staff that a saiyan was in the medical ward. Vegeta ignored the uproar, and laid Bulma on the examination table and went in search of a doctor.

Once Vegeta opened the door to the room he was greeted with a familiar face. "Prince Vageta." The doctor said, "Dr. Malaka." Vegeta acknowledged. The doctor nodded to Vegeta and then walked past him into the room. "I thought you would have been dead by now old man." Vegeta said, following the man into the room. "Yes well, the life expectancy of my race is much longer than any." He said, Taking a seat in the wheeled chair and rolled over to Bulma as she lay un-conscious on the examination table. "What do you have here?" He asked, moving in closer to get a better look. "A saiyan female?" He questioned, surprised. "An exotic one at that, half breed I assume?" Vegeta folded his arms but said nothing. "Her name?" The doctor asked. "Eruca." Vegeta replied, it was best to go with a saiyan name, he didn't want to explain the situation, who knew if they were allies with the band of saiyans running around with Turles, if he gave too much, they may just come after him, and while he was sure he would be the victor, if they fought it out in space, the victor wouldn't matter, they would all die. "her father was saiyan, her mother human. I was as surprised as you at her coloring." He said simply. The doctor nodded, and went to the counter that was up against the wall. He pulled out a pair of sheers and began cutting away at her cloths. Vegeta watched carefully as he did so. "Strange garments" The doctor said, cutting her bra down the middle and exposing her torso. He looked her over, and then started prodding and poking at her, he nodded a couple of times, and then cut away the rest of her cloths. He turned back to the counter, and pulled a sheet from one of the cabinets and covered her with it.

Once done he collected a needle and some containers to collect a blood sample in. "Her skin is very soft and thin, I am rather surprised that it can even keep the blood contained. Human's blood is thin, and the amount of energy that flows within is much less compared to a saiyan. But her body is able to keep it in tact. We should get an accurate energy reading while we are at it. It's amazing how she can with stand it." Dr. Malaka said. Vegeta frowned at the doctors comments. "She is not your test subject." He snapped. The doctor frowned, "yes well, if we are going to treat her, we need to understand her DNA, and how the two separate races were able to sort out the obvious differences to keep her whole." Dr, Malaka replied. Vegeta folded his arms. "I don't want record of us being here." He said, the doctor looked at him still frowning, or frowned as best he could for his lizard face. He was green and scaly. He stood about a foot shorter then Vageta, but he made that up in girth. His hair was a bright orange and he spoke with a slight lisp.

The doctor ran his fingers over the inside of Bulma's elbow with great interest and surprise. "It truly is a sight to behold. I have only seen a few humans in my day, but this is amazing." The doctor wrapped the tunicate around her upper arm and then flicked her arm a couple of times to force the veins to standout. He punctured her skin and began collecting blood. Once done, he turned her head slightly and pulled her hair from the back of her neck. "How long as she been un-conscious?" Dr. Malaka, asked. "Six days," was Vegeta's frustrated answer.

The doctor gave him a side long glance, and replied with a "hn" but didn't say anything more as he continued to examine Bulma. "I assume you were too far out to get here sooner?" He asked as he turned her head to the other side to take a look. "My ship has limitations," was Vegeta's reply. The doctor nodded. "ahh." He said, and then turned to the counter again, grabbing a scalpel. "See here?" The doctor asked, pointing to the back of her neck. "This is an entry site." He said, "Something has found its way insider her body and is feeding on something. We have to get a full body scan." He said. The doctor walked over to the wall, "I need a med team in here immediately for a full body scan." He said and then turned to Vegeta. "You too my boy." He said, "Can't let you go if you have been where she has, the chances of you having the same thing is high." Vegeta frowned at the doctor. "Obviously I am fine." The doctor gave him a look that said he wasn't taking no for an answer. "As strong as you were as a child, I am sure you are much stronger now, but I can still force you into that machine, or you can go willingly." The doctor warned standing straighter. "hmph." Vegeta said, and followed them out of the room.

He remembered the last time he refused a scan from the doctor. He used an energy sapping method to caused him to become sedated. It took them several tries, but they got what they needed. He was sure that the doctor had similar ways of dealing with uncooperative patients. While Vegeta would likely win, that would not leave much help for Bulma. While he didn't care much what happened to her, he needed her to fly the ship.

It took over three hours to scan both Bulma and Vegeta. They were both now waiting in the same room they were escorted to when they first arrived. Bulma was still un-conscious, and Vegeta was starting to actually grow concerned. He was agitated with the waiting, and he was hungry, which made him more agitated. He paced the room with purpose with his arms folded. He would stop at the door and listen intently for a moment, but then continue to pace. Normally he would just wait without moving, but no one was there to watch him, and he was finding the small room to be very constricting. His stomach was making sure to remind him that he hadn't eaten a proper meal in some time, and while he was trying to be patient, between the waiting and the hunger, it was getting more and more difficult as the seconds ticked by.

The doctor finally came into the room and sat down in the chair with wheels again. "Well, your scan came out clean, surprisingly, being together I would assume you both would have been exposed, and if not one would have infected the other." He said. Vegeta turned his head towards the doctor, surprised by the statement. "Especially during sex." The doctor continued. "Excuse me?" Vegeta started, angry with the assumptions of the doctor. "What exactly does sex have to do with any of this?" He asked, irritated. "Well, typically when two people couple, anything one has the other typically will get, with the exchange of body fluids and all." The doctor said, with a waving of his hand. Vegeta glared at him. "Then that explains why I have not contracted it, as we have not had sex." He answered flippantly. The doctor gave him a look that told him he didn't believe him one bit. "Forgive me, but you mean to tell me, that you have this fine specimen of a saiyan female alone, on a ship, and you have not had sex with her?" "What exactly are you implying?" Vegeta growled. The doctor looked at Bulma, and then at Vegeta. "You do realize that you are the only reported saiyans alive?"

"Your point doctor?" Vegeta snapped.

"My point is that even for the standards of my race, she is stunning, and any man would be…"

"I have more important things to focus one then fucking my pilot and engineer." Vegeta snapped, cutting off the doctor. "Yes, yes of course." The doctor said after his initial shock of Vegeta's outburst faded. "Well, back to the scans, as I said you are clean. The girl however, she has some sort of unrecognizable parasite." He said, flipping through the pages. "I don't know where it originated, but it actually is a parasite that feeds on energy. This fluctuation of her natural energy is because the more she puts off, the more the parasite feeds." He said. Vegeta looked down at Bulma. "We have tested it with many antidotes and found one that will effectively kill the parasite." The doctor said, closing the file he was using as a reference, and looking up at Vegeta seriously. "there is an issue however." He said, "The issue is that it causes amnesia. While this particular drug is the cure for other diseases and parasites as well, we have seen the side effects be severe. In some patients, they lost all memories, while others retained some. In some rare cases the memories came back, it took time, but they did eventually regain their memories." He said, looking down at the Bulma. "She may not remember anything." Vegeta frowned. This either could be a good thing, or a bad thing. Vegeta wasn't sure which yet.

"Because you brought her in, and she is your companion, we need your permission to start her treatment." The Doctor added. "You are sure it will cure her?" Vegeta asked, if she lost her ability to repair and maintain the ship, but it didn't cure her, then it would have been for nothing. "There is an eighty-five percent chance that it will cure her." The doctor said, "we have not seen this here before, and so it is hard to put a one hundred percent on this." Vegeta nodded, "do it." He said. The doctor waved in the staff. "How long?" Vegeta asked. "Twelve hours." The doctor replied. Vegeta nodded and watched as they took Bulma out of the room.

They needed food. Vegeta would get what they needed and be back before the treatment was over. "Also, I thought that you might want to know that the full moon will be here in a few days. From the looks of it, this girl has never transformed. During a time of amnesia, it may not be the best time to allow that." Vegeta nodded and left the room. The doctor watched him go, a faint smile on his face, "well, that boy has got it bad." He said as he finished up the last of his notes entered into the system.

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AN: Sorry this chapter is shorter guys, but it goes with the flow of the story. Next chapter is a longer one. Hopefully I can keep you all on your toes! :D

As always, please review! I love to hear any and all feedback. Thank you!


	10. Chapter 10

Disclaimer: I do not own DBZ

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Vegeta took the better part of four hours to negotiate a trade with the local merchants. It took another two hours to pack it all into the ship. The most difficult thing was figuring out how to get the food it an empty capsule. Everything he used already had a capsule to it, but getting something new was more of a challenge. He had a set of unused capsules that Bulma brought with them, most of them were for the materials that they were bringing back, but he was unsure of how to use the food capsules that they had, and this pack actually had directions. He couldn't read what they were because they were not in a language that he could read. The pictures did help slightly, but still didn't actually show him how. He was tempted to leave it for Bulma to figure out, but unfortunately, she might not remember either.

In his first few attempts, he broke the buttons off the tops of the capsules, and he tossed them aside, useless. This was the only time in his life that he actually wished he listened to the woman more. they needed the food, but there was no place to store it, with the technology that she had, there wasn't any reason to keep large store spaces. He threw another capsule and looked at the pictures on the directions again. His irritation was only magnifying the issue, and he was tempted to just pack it all in the ship and hopped to whatever god was out there that Bulma at remembered how to use them.

His mind made up, he stacked the packages in the middle of the main room, and then left the ship. Bulma would probably be finished with her treatment soon, if not already, and he hopped that they could leave. With the potential of the full moon, which truth be told, he would love to experience again; he knew that it would set them back, and he was unsure of her reaction to it. in typical circumstances, on the first transformation, you lashed out at anything and everything, primal instinct taking over with a serious case of paranoia. That was not something he would be prepared for, especially not in a place that was overrun by people who were prepared for the worst as it was.

Vegeta finished packing everything in the main room. once done, he couldn't help but laugh at the genius of the woman, how she even came up with the idea was beyond him, but he was sure that there wasn't anyone like her in the while galaxy. He then sneered as she walked towards the door, disgusted with himself for even being proud to know such a squawking weakling, and yet he couldn't help but be hopeful that she was recovered enough to get off this mud ball of a planet so that they could continue the mission so he could finally ascend to the legendary. with that thought in mind, he closed the doors to the ship and took off in the direction of the hospital.

Vegeta touched down minutes later in the front of the hospital and was immediately curious as to what the commotion was inside. The alarms were going off, and people were running up and down the halls. There were several people pushing others on the medical beds. He walked in and took a moment to survey the commotion, once he did, he could see that the people being wheeled around were actually other medical staff. Confused, he tried to find out where they were coming from. He looked left, then right and found that they seemed to be running away from the right. He shrugged and decided to investigate, curiosity and all.

He walked down the hall, and the farther he walked, the louder it got. He could hear people screaming and shouting, things were being smashed and broken. Were they being attacked by something? He stopped and frowned. The noise was coming from Bulma's room. he turned the corner and the door to the room was hanging wide open. Standing in the door way he surveyed the scene before him in shock. Bulma stood stark naked, her blue tail lashing angrily as she had a male medical attendant pinned to the wall as high as she could reach, which was just enough to have him dangling off the floor. Her face was scrunched in rage as she snarled at him. there were two others behind her and they were trying to stick her with a needle, something filled with a sedative he was sure. Dr, Malaka was to the left, trying got reason with her, but he words fell on deaf ears.

The nurses behind her were getting closer, and she used her left had to grip the hair of the man she held pinned to the wall, while her left stayed fixed to his neck. She pulled his body and used it as a barricade against the others, and then threw him at them sending them all flying to the corner of the room. once done, she turned on him and crouched, ready to defend herself.

Vegeta couldn't help the smirk that formed as he saw her, crouched and ready for him to attack. He folded his arms and stood tall, which always seemed taller then he actually was. "well, looks like a party in here." He said, amused. Dr. Malaka snapped his head in Vegeta's direction.

"thank the gods you are back!" he exclaimed, arms in the air as he back away. "she woke up and started attacking everything in sight!" The Doctor explained, "We couldn't control her." he added. Vegeta found himself extremely proud to hear that. "no?" he asked, as he kept eye contact with her. Bulma didn't move, instead she just sat there at the ready. "maybe you can assist?" the doctor asked.

Vegeta chuckled, "I thought you had ways of dealing with the strong ones." the doctor glared at him. "I wasn't expecting this strength from her." he defended himself. "she took be off guard." He added quickly.

Vegeta laughed and raised his hand to indicate the doctor to stop. "I don't need your excuses." He said, the amusement not leaving his voice. he continued to stand in the door way, Bulma's only way out. He watched as her eyes flicked around the room quickly, but only for a second or too, never taking her eyes off of him for long. She was expecting him to attack her, and she was alert and ready. He looked her over. Her form was perfect, which he was surprised to see, she was always sloppy when they trained, but today was different. She didn't care about her nakedness, she only cared about was her life, and everyone in this room threatened it.

He contemplated what to do. he could beat her into submission, and then they could leave, but he didn't think that would work out well. He wasn't sure how much her strength had grown, with the ZenKai at work here. He could already tell she had increased in strength and power, and she wasn't anywhere near her full power. He looked around the room quickly then back at her. She may not remember anything, but she was a scientist, and her way of thinking wouldn't have changed, at least he hopped it wouldn't.

He leaned slightly against the door frame and waited, continuing their staring contest. Bulma was catching her breath, still trying to find a way out of the room, but she wouldn't be able to beat him, and he was sure they both knew that. "Are you going to attack me or what?" She growled. Vegeta gave her a shrug. "why would I do that?" he asked her. she narrowed her eyes at him and crowned lower, placing her knee on the floor. She couldn't maintain that position for long, and she didn't want to move out of her spot, just in case he came at her when she least expect it. "I don't know!" she spat at him. "all the other came at me with needles and things." She said. Vegeta looked at the men in the corner, and then back at Bulma. "I don't have any needles." He said. She frowned in response. Vegeta thought he should take a different approach. "what is your name woman?" he asked her, she frowned and looked around the room and then back at him. "I don't know." She said, "why don't I know?" she asked. Vegeta pushed his body off the door jam and stood. "I know your name." he told her, taking a step towards her. Bulma raised herself back into her ready position and moved a couple paces back, right in the wall. She growled once she touched it. "tell me what it is!" she demanded.

Vegeta shook his head. "there are two ways to do this." He told her, "the easy way, and the hard way." He said, taking another step forward. "I can tell you your name, and then we can discuss how we know each other, and then we can leave, or you can fight this and I will just take you anyway." He said, standing in front of her. frowning, Bulma looking around the room again, trying to find a way around him, but he was directly in front of her, and his confidence showed that he was sure he could stop her if she tried to get out.

Vegeta watched as she contemplated, he hopped she choose the hard way; he really needed to blow off some steam. She backed up to the wall, and looked at him as she slowly sifted her feet and her weight. Vegeta couldn't help the grin that appeared at realizing that she chose the hard way.

She used the wall to kick off and boost her speed to try to get past him, but instead of going around, she tried to jump over him. He moved to the left as she seemed to be moving that way, but he corrected himself once he realized she had jumped. She was much faster than before, but that was still much slower than him. he reached up and grabbed her left ankle and pulled. She hit the floor with a crunch, but instead of favoring her pain, as she did during training, she recover instantly, and kicked out with her right foot, right into his face. He let her ankle go and she darted out the door. Vegeta wiped his face with a laugh, that actually hurt a little. Oh this was going to be fun. he headed out the door, he could feel her energy, and he knew exactly where she was.

"wait!" Dr. Malaka called as he went out the door. "The hospital!" He shouted. Vegeta stopped for a second, "this is the only medical base for light years, and we cannot afford to lose it!" Normally Vegeta would ignore the plea, but he was right. It was a necessity. He nodded once and headed in the direction that Bulma went. He would lure her out of the hospital.

Bulma was running as fast as she could through the hallways. They just kept going and going. She couldn't figure out which way was out, and there weren't any windows. All the doors only lead to another hallway. She finally got fed up and picked a way and started breaking through them. If she broke down enough walls, she would get outside and then she would be free. She was sure that guy was on her heels, and she didn't want him to find her or catch up to her. she hopped she was fast enough to lose him, but in this maze, it was only a matter of time before they crossed patch.

Just as she thought that, she broke through a wall and right into the body of someone. Once she stopped moving she snapped her head up and was looking right into the black eyes of her pursuer. She reacted quickly and tried to use the heel of her hand to break his nose, but he blocked her hit easily. She used her elbow to his ribs as a way to get off him, but he barley register the hit. He had her wrist in his hand and he yanked her towards him as he stood. "you are being a child." He told her, but that only pissed her off. "You have a stranger running after you to do who knows what and then see how you react!" she snapped, using her foot to kick his knee, he didn't even flinch at the kick, and she frowned. "let me go!" she shouted at him. "we have things to discuss." He told her and threw her over his shoulder. he bare ass was in the air as he made his way back towards the room. she started beating on his back as they walked, but he continued to ignore it.

Once they were back in the room, he threw her on the floor, and then tossed a sheet at her. "first, I am much stronger then you and no matter how many times you try to run or fight I will always win." He told her, "second, you and I are companions, and we have a mission to complete." She frowned; there was no way she knew this arrogant jerk! "now, would you like to know your name?" he asked. Her frown turned into a scowl, yes she would, but she didn't want to hear it from him. She wanted to just know it, like everybody else; you should just know your name. "why don't I know it myself?" she sneered. He couldn't help but feel like he was at him, on his planet talking to a real saiyan woman having this conversation. She was every bit the stereo type of a saiyan woman at this moment. "you had a treatment, and this is the side effect." The doctor explained, "I don't know how long it will last and it could be permanent. If you would only just calm down, we could explain everything." He said.

"I am in an unfamiliar place, with strangers who are trying to perform experiments on me, and I am naked, and you are asking me to calm down!" tossed the sheet on the floor, and stood, she needed to get out of here, the walls were closing in on her, and these men were not trying to help her but control her! she looked around the room again, the man standing in front of her, just her high but somehow taller, was smirking at her, as if he was amused by this whole display. She growled at him, she wanted to swipe that smirk right off his face. She looked at the doctor who was still speaking, but she was too busy trying to find a way out. She looked around and then looked up. She squatted on the floor, her hands supporting her as she tried to decide what to do.

"…do you understand me?" the doctor asked. She turned to look at him as she tried to figure out how she could execute her plan without the smirking one following her. she realized that would not be the case. She wrapped her tail around her waist and was ready to power up to the max. she just needed to do it at the right moment.

The doctor watched as Bulma seemed to calm down some, and he hopped that his words were actually getting through to her. she didn't respond to his question, but she seemed to accept his words. Vegeta walked over to a cabinet, but made sure never to put his back to her, and pulled out a set of medical scrubs. "here, cover yourself." He finally said. Not that he didn't enjoy the view, but he thought that she might feel more comfortable dressed, rather than naked and cowering in the corner of the room, more like a wounded animal rather than the confident scientist he knew.

She snatched the cloths from him and dressed quickly. She gave a curt nod in thanks, while Vegeta went back to his place between her and the door. Now that she was dressed, she felt much more calm, being surrounded by men, and naked was not a good feeling, and she was sure that there was a reason for that feeling. She decided to try to redeem some of her dignity and stand, mirroring Vegeta's stance with her arms folded with her back to the wall, she wasn't going to leave that spot, the farther away from them the better.

"now, I can tell you have questions, what do you want to know?" the doctor asked her. Bulma didn't look at him; she kept her eye on Vegeta, as he seemed to be the enforcer here. "what is your name and his?" she asked, lifting her chin in Vegeta's direction. "I am Doctor Malaka; I am a physician here and provided you treatment for a parasite that you contracted while on another world. Your companion here, Prince Vegeta, told me that the only other planet you were on a planet known as Sector 349. Fortunately we were able to find the result of the parasite that your contracted. During your injuries, and before you were placed in the regen tank for healing, you must have contracted it then, your immune system was focused on healing your body more than keeping anything out." The doctor explained.

Bulma didn't have anything to say to that, so she went on with other questions. "and my name?" she asked Vegeta. He considered her silently for a moment. She was calm but she was ready to run if she had to. Her body language was all "flight or fight", this was something he had never actually seen her do, and with her knew found strength, he was sure that she could cause damage while she did it. what amazed him was that she instinctually knew how to use her strength and power to her advantage. Even with the small amount of training he gave her, she was already much more advanced then when they were on the ship. She was aware of everything going on in that room, and she was not allowing anything to distract her, even when listening to the doctor's explanation she didn't take her eyes off him. He found this most interesting that she realized, without even understanding how to feel another person's energy that he was the stronger of the two. This could be because he was the one who brought her back, or she might have already known that from the start.

"Your name is Eruca." Vegeta lied, it was best to keep with the store he told the doctor, for her own protection, internally rolling his eyes at the prospect of even trying to protect her. "your father was a subject of mine. Your mother was human, and she died in child birth, your father raised you, and once we broke away from Frieza, we were companions up until his death. You and I are now companions; you have been my pilot and engineer." He gave the story easily, but the look she gave him told him she was skeptical. "you built my ship." He said. That at least was the truth, and it seemed to allow her to believe what he said. Not that he cared; he was going to come clean to her once they left anyway.

Bulma looked around the room one more time. "I don't recognize that name." she confessed, disappointed. "I would have thought that once I heard my name I would recognize it." Vegeta gave a nod, that made sense. "it was the name your father gave you. He thought it would suit you having a saiyan name." he said. She frowned again. "the doctor said that you are a prince, a prince of what?' she asked. He frowned, irritated that he had to explain, and even more irritated that his title was all but useless here. "I am prince of all the saiyans." He stated matter of factly. She frowned, "is that what I am then, and why I have a saiyan name? so I am half human and half saiyan?" she asked him. "our planet was destroyed, and there are few saiyans left. There are probably a whole band of half-breeds out there. You should be proud and thankful that I took you in after your father perished. Any other would have cast you out once he did." Vegeta snapped. "why? Because I have something you want?" she sneered. "exactly." He confirmed. "don't mistake my hospitality for anything other then what it is." The doctor frowned at Vegeta for that comment; he knew that Vegeta knew that that was a lie.

"well, now, back to more important matters." The doctor interrupted. "now, you have been cleared to leave, which is what I was going to tell you when we came in and you attacked us." The doctor pointed his glare at Bulma, but she only shrugged and looked away. "You were coming at me with needles, what was I supposed to think." She said. "We were only trying to confirm our last test, which was that the parasite had been eliminated. But it seems to be the case as not only are you awake, but you are stronger then when you were admitted, and being saiyan I can summarize that this is due to ZenKai." He said.

Bulma frowned as she thought over that. it was clear on her face she didn't know what he was talking about. The doctor decided not to explain. "now, if you would just let me get one last blood sample, then you can be on your way." He said, he didn't move and waited for her reply. Bulma looked at Vegeta, and then back at the doctor. "We can force it out of you if we need to." Vegeta added. She glared at him. the doctor raised his hand to indicate that Vegeta stop talking. "Humph." He said, folding his arms and looking away. "I don't have all day." He added. The doctor gave him a glare and then turned back to Bulma. "It won't take long and I promise that will be the last time." he said.

Bulma sighed, "Fine, but I don't want any of those luckiest doing it, just you." She said, opining to the medical assistants standing outside ready to either come running in or away from the area. "They won't even enter the room." the doctor promised. Bulma nodded, and the doctor went the cabinet and took what he need. Getting her arm swabbed and the tourniquet, he tried to work as quickly as possible. Getting the sample he needed he bandaged her arm and stood to leave. "I'll just go make sure you are clear and then you can leave."

The doctor left the room and Bulma held her arm staring daggers at Vegeta. "you said I built the ship?" She asked, curious. Vegeta glanced at her, but didn't move, "yes." He said. "what else have I built?" she asked. "All sorts of things." He said vaguely. "what are we doing out here, don't we have a home?" she asked. Vegeta finally looked at her. "we currently reside on Earth, but we are on a mission to gather materials for a better training facility." He said. "Training facility for who?" she asked? Vegeta gave her a look saying that she should know. She shook her head. "are we friends?" she asked, "because I am finding it really hard to believe that I like you enough to call you my friend." She added. Vegeta smirked at her. "no?" he said, walking towards her. she automatically went on the defensive. He stood in front of her, "I trained you." He said, leaning in, "taught you everything you know about hand to hand combat." He said, taking notice of her reaction of his close proximity.

Bulma couldn't help the reaction she had to him, her breathing hitched, and she could feel the heat of his body at being so close to him. Vegeta knew of her attraction before and he was using this to his advantage. "feeling a little out of sorts?" he asked her huskily as he put his hand on the wall behind her. she glared up at him, but couldn't help the flush that had started to creep up her neck and into her cheeks. "I don't know what you're talking about." She said, "oh I think you do." he countered. "Just because someone doesn't like another, doesn't mean they aren't attracted." He said, trailing his finger down her face. Bulma held her breath, afraid that any other action would only make him press forward with his little mind game.

Vegeta looked into her eyes, cold and determined, confident and aroused. He started to lean. He was so close to her, he could smell her breath. He suddenly remembered himself and walked back to his spot at the door. Bulma finally started to breath, and was trying to catch her breath without being noticed, while Vegeta was mentally beating himself for his weaknesses. How could he even think of doing anything with her!

What was wrong with him? crossing that line like that? He was determined, no matter how attracted he was to her to never allow his sexual urges to make his choices for him. If he at any time decided to move forward with anything with that woman, it would be because he consciously chose it, not because he allowed his body to choose for him. if he were alone he would have blasted an entire mountain in his frustration, but he couldn't escape right now because he was waiting for those damned test. Now that he thought if it where was that damned doctor?

Bulma was still trying to understand what had happened; she was having mixed feelings about it all. She wanted him to stop but didn't want him to. She had a feeling that she had wanted attention from him like that for a long time, but for some reason she wasn't getting it. but why? Why be attracted to a man as arrogant and rude as him? She shook her head, where did she get these feeling she obviously had for him, and why did she have them?

The doctor walked in and paused; noticing the shift in tension in the room, but then shook it off and sat in his chair. "the test results were interesting and I think that there is some explaining that needs to happen here." He said, turning to Vegeta. "it seems that your DNA has shifted drastically since we first admitted you." He said, "any reason as to why that would be, Vegeta?" he asked. Vegeta pinched the bridge of his nose; this was getting worse and worse. "No doctor I don't.," he almost sighed. "well, it seems I might have the solution." The doctor said, letting Vegeta know that he didn't believe a word he just said. "Based on the rate of the change, and the way that things are changing, I would have to say that at some point someone put you in a regeneration tank and didn't choose the correct DNA." He said, turning his glare back to Vegeta. "because it seems that human and saiyan DNA are similar, and someone knew it would be compatible, they chose that instead." He said, still glaring at Vegeta. "In most cases, using the wrong DNA on a patient in the region tank can cause death, the body will reject the DNA and they would die, however, for some reason, that I can't explain, this didn't happen to you." He said, Turing to look at Bulma. "you are very lucky." He added. "now, what is her real name and what actually happened."

Vegeta slammed the door behind him and locked it. "this was to protect her." he ground out, hating that he was even saying the words out loud. "her name is Bulma Briefs. She is a scientist from Earth, and we are on a mission to collect Lignite." He said, frustrated. "Why would you need to protect her?" The doctor asked, "The more saiyans together the stronger you are. If anyone thought she was raised that way they would think twice before attacking two adult saiyans." Vegeta grumbled. He was particularly irritated that he had to even admit any of this to anyone. It was one thing to choose to do things on his own, but the doctor wouldn't have let it go, and he was serious when he agreed that this facility had to remain intact. There were only a few of friezes medical bay's left that could actually treat any race there was out there. The doctor nodded. Then sat down. "I assume you are talking about Turles?" He said. Vegeta growled at the sound of that name. "That bastard wants to reinstate Frieza's army; I have no intention of actually participating in that farce!" He snapped. "Walking in his footsteps…" he sneered, "as if I would want to be a successor for a tyrant like that!"

"Your father wasn't much better." The doctor added, "He was already on his way to being a tyrant before he made any treaties with Frieza." Vegeta took a step towards him. "My father was a great king!" He said, "And he was only doing what he needed to in order to expand his empire!" He said, shaking his fist at him.

"Like sending his young son and hair to learn under such a monster." The doctor added. "Enough!" Vegeta Bellowed, "I will not discuss this now or ever." He raged, "Now, you know what truly happened, we are leaving." He said with finality. The doctor sighed. "There are things you don't know or realize." The doctor said sadly. "You can go, you won't be able to leave tonight, we are passing through the sole systems asteroid belt, getting off the planet now will only cause more damage to your ship. I suggest you use this time to get stocked up on what you need and leave at first light." He said, standing.

The doctor opened the door and turned, "your secret is safe with me girl." He said, and left. Bulma was giving Vegeta a look he couldn't place. "What?!" He snapped, she frowned. "Thank you." She said. "Shut up." He said, turning to leave. Bulma followed quickly.

They were out of the hospital and Vegeta naturally went to pick up Bulma but she backed away glaring at him. "We need to fly." He said, taking another step, but she evaded him again. "Woman, stop playing games" he snapped. "You are not carrying me!" She said, backing up again. Vegeta was already angry, and her stubbornness was not something he needed. "Fine!" he said, turning his back on her. "Find your own way to the ship." And he took off in the direction of where he left the ship.

Bulma frowned after him. What a jerk! Leaving her there, couldn't even wait for her to follow. She sighed, flying? She wasn't sure she knew how to do that. She looked around her and saw that there were people around. She didn't want to embarrass herself, so she tried to find a place where she wouldn't be seen. It was best to practice before just jumping in the air.

Taking a deep breath, she jumped as high as she could. She made it a few hundred yards, but still landed on the ground. She tried again, but found she could only jump and not actually stay air born. She decided that she would just go in the direction that Vegeta went and hope that she found him.

Each time she jumped she tried to jump higher than the last, and stay in the air as much as possible. That only caused her to jump higher, not really stay air born. She finally stopped to rest and contemplate what she needed to do to actually stay in the air. After a few moments, she was ready to start again when she smelled something. She looked around, whatever it was it smelled delicious, and from the sound of her stomach, she hadn't eaten anything in some time. She decided that investigating would be best. So she followed her nose to find the culprit of the wonderful smell.

After a short time she found herself in the woods. She could see the fire in the distance and a person sitting on a large log. She stopped and hid a bit as not to alert the person. "Don't lurk, it's not very saiyan like." He said. She frowned. "I wasn't lurking!" She snapped, as she walked over and sat down on the log next to Vegeta as he took another bite of his kill. She looked at the large beast he had somehow chopped up and was rousing in pieces on a large fire. "Wow" she said, her mouth watering. "Eat." He said. Bulma didn't need another invitation, she grabbed the closest thing to her and devoured it. Her moans of pleasure made Vageta shake his head in amusement.

They sat there, for better part of two hours, cooking and eating. The lack of food Vegeta had had on their trip there, and Bulma being unconscious really took a toll on their appetite. Once finished, Bulma stretched and sighed. "That was delicious!" She completed. Vegeta didn't answer, he only stood and started stretching. Since they weren't going to be able to leave tonight, he thought a good training match would be in order, and he had just the right opponent. "Get up." He ordered. She turned at looked at him. "We are going to train." He said as an answer to her unspoken question. "Might as well make the most of our time until the morning." He added. Bulma sighed but got up and stretched. She looked down at her feet. She forgot she was barefoot. "I don't have shoes." She said, offhandedly as she stretched. Vegeta shrugged and remove his battle armor, his boots and his gloves. They were now as equal as they could be.

Bulma sat on the floor to stretch her body, reaching her toes, and then laid down to pull her lags up. She looked up at the sky and saw the shooting stars. She smiled at the beauty of it, and then looked at the moon. It seemed strange, and she got up and walked a few paces out of the forest to see. "Is that an eclipse?" She asked, Vegeta was suddenly beside her, "what?" He asked as he looked up at the sky. "Wow." Bulma said, excited. Vegeta frowned down at her, and then back up at the moon. "Shit." He said, and went back to the fire to collect his things. This was bad, really bad. "That damned doctor!" he snarled putting on his boots, armor, and gloves. If he hurried he could get as far away as he could, and then he would kill that doctor. With that he took off back in the direction of the hospital. Couldn't anything go right on this damn mission? Of course not, because that was always his luck.

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AN: Thank you all for the reviews, they make me happy! :) I hope you like this one, we are getting close to some really good stuff, please be patient!

Also, just in case you wanted to know Eruca is a saiyan name I came up with. It is an edible plant known as Eruca Sativa. Trying to keep with the tradition! :D


	11. Chapter 11

Disclaimer: I do not own DBZ.

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"Vegeta?" Bulma questioned as she walked back to the 'camp', but he was not there. His boots and armor were all taken as well. She shook her head and sat on the log. What was she supposed to do now? Here she was, in the middle of the woods, in an unfamiliar place, she has no idea who she is, or where the ship is. She realized that even if she did know who she was that she wouldn't know where the ship was because she was incapacitated when they arrived.

So, why would he just leave her here so unexpectedly? She frowned and looked up at the sky, was it the eclipse? Was there something about it that made him angry? He did seemed rather pissed off when he just bolted into the sky like that. Bulma sighed, what was she supposed to do now? She didn't know, so she just sat there, looking up at the sky admiring the meteor shower. It was a sight for sure.

She looked back at the moon, the eclipse was progressing. She sighed again, getting up off the log and decided that she should at least try to teach herself to fly while she was waiting. She knew that Vegeta would be back, just not when. So she started working out in her head as to why she couldn't fly now, and what she needed to do in order to fly. Vegeta and she were the same race after all and he flew, so she had to be able to do it too.

So she took a deep breath and closed her eyes, and then after a moment of trying to clear her mind she looked up at the sky, the eclipse in clear view, and then she frowned. Something was wrong, but she couldn't really put her finger on what. She looked around herself and she realized she was in fact alone. Vegeta had just left her there. But why? He just disappeared, but she couldn't understand why he would. There had to be a reason.

Bulma looked around the area; she couldn't find anything that would cause him to just run off like that. She looked up at the moon again, and she closed her eyes, there was a feeling that was coming over her, and she couldn't help but feel…something, but she couldn't figure out what it was. Then she frowned. The moon, she mentioned the eclipse just before he flew away quickly. That had to be related, she just wasn't sure why.

Then, as she gazed up at the moon, she started to feel angry, but excited at the same time. She shook her head, there was something that was changing in her, and she couldn't stop it, she didn't even understand it, but it was there, a rage.

Bulma shivered as she looked up at the moon again, then smiled and jumped into the air, taking off in the same direction that Vegeta has flown in just under an hour before. She was going to make him pay for leaving her there all alone with something obviously happening. How dare he just leave here there!

Vegeta landed with a crash in front of the hospital, his rage palpable. He crashed through the front door, "Malaka!" He shouted as he walked towards the room they were in before. He didn't think the doctor would be in there, but it was a start. Once in the room, and finding it empty, he used it as an outlet for his rage, smashing everything in sight. He left the room to search elsewhere, calling the doctor as he went. There were medical staff running from him, but he paid them no mind, they were not what he had come for. He didn't have much time, so it was best to keep his eye on his goal.

"Malaka!" He raged again, smashing through a wall into the common area. Vegeta looked around the room and found him. His face twisted in rage as he stalked his target. "How dare you!" He shouted, "Who do you think you are?" He asked in a deadly whisper. The doctor stood his ground, not showing any fear as the other people in the room ran as if they were the ones being pursued. "I don't know what you mean." The doctor said with a frown.

Vegeta finally reached him and grabbed him by the neck of his shirt and slammed him into the wall with so much force it dented under the impact. "You knew what was coming and you said nothing!" He growled in the doctor's face. "You could have warned me about the eclipse, but instead chose to warn me about the full moon and the meteor shower instead." Vegeta was shaking with rage, but he wanted answers first, he wanted to know why the doctor would set him up like this. "It wouldn't have mattered, the eclipse and the shower were discovered to be on the same night, why warn you about something you can't escape?" The doctor asked. Vegeta growled at the man, "I would have figured something out! But you took that choice away from me!" He snarled slamming him into the wall again. Malaka grunted with the impact. "What would you have done?" He ground out. "Lock the poor girl up?" he said with force. It wasn't like they would be able to escape the effects of the eclipse. Vegeta growled again and threw him across the room. "There are always options!" He snarled, "Options that are no longer available because you decided to play matchmaker!" He snapped, advancing on him. "I am not prepared for this inconvenience, and now I have no choice but to allow it!" He raged, screaming at the man. "I refuse to be a pawn in anyone's game!" He growled low, "Never again!" He said it so low and with such promise the doctor suddenly feared for his life. He was sure when Vegeta came in he would be able to talk to him and calm him down. But he realized his grave mistake. The man had taking his free will away from him, even if the choice was unintentional, it still happened. "Vegeta, I didn't think that telling you would change anything other than cause anxiety over something you couldn't control." He pleaded. "I will always have control." Vegeta responded, "Even in this situation, I will make a choice. Even if it is influenced by something else, it will still be my choice!" Vegeta picking the doctor up again and slamming him into the wall harder. "I will not be forced into submission again, not by you or anyone!"

Vegeta raised his hand, his faced twisted in rage and fury as he gathered energy into his right hand. Once the amount was sufficient to kill the man, he began to push into the doctor's face. He was ready to give him the killing blow when something crashed into him with such for that it sent both men flying into the wall that Vegeta had the doctor pinned to just movements before.

Groaning, they both rolled on the floor, and Vegeta started to stand and looked to see who his attacker was. "You bastard!" He heard, as he came face to face with a seething Bulma. "Damn." He said as he whipped saliva from his mouth and checking to see if it was blood, satisfied that the hit wasn't that hard, though it hurt, he glanced back at the doctor briefly before facing the seething woman in front of him. "Looks like she speared your life old man." He said, turning his body fully to her. "And so it begins." He said, standing tall before her. "And now there is no going back." The regret heavy in his voice, and the doctor couldn't help but feel a bit of guilt at the sound of it.

"I'm sorry Vegeta." He said knowing that apologies were not common with saiyans, and they accepted them even less, but he couldn't just sit there and not acknowledge that he was wrong. The doctor looked at the woman who visibly shook with rage. "I didn't realize…" he tried to continue, only to be cut off by Vegeta's curt reply. "No, you didn't. I wouldn't have known myself had I not been off planet with my father's squad when I saw it." He said. "Tell me doctor, do you know much about the effects of the eclipse." He decided that since he wasn't going to be able to kill the man now, he might as well get some information out of him. "Come back when it's over, we will talk then." The doctor said. Vegeta shook his head, he should just kill him and be done with it, his answer told him that there was far more to this then he originally imagined. He took a step forward, might as well get on with this. He left the doctor without another word.

Vegeta approached Bulma but kept his distance. It was not surprising that she was overtaken by the blutz waves already, he was already feeling the call, but being trained to withstand them, they didn't affect him the same or as deeply. That being said, he wasn't going to be able to resist them forever, especially with her being in a raged from it. He regarded her carefully. Not giving her any facial expressions. It could be worse he supposed, there were far worse opponents to face in this battle.

"You just left me there!" Bulma growled, "You knew what was happening and you just left me there!" She screamed. Vegeta frowned. "How aware are you?" He asked her. "Aware enough." She said, closing her eyes. Her body shook with the strain as she tried to resist the fog that was forming in her mind. He approached her. "It's only a matter of time." He said. "Come, we should move out of this area." She looked up at him as he began to rise in the air.

"What's happening to me?" She asked, trying to hug herself to keep the rage that she felt forming take hold of her and doing something she would regret later. "I am not entirely sure myself." Vegeta responded with a glare at the doctor. "It's because of the moon." He added. "They give off blutz waves all the time, but in certain situations, such as the full moon, and an eclipse, the blutz waves are magnified. That magnification is what causes our change. But in the eclipse, those blutz waves bring a different change." He said.

"Come." He said again, and Bulma rose into the air to follow him out. Vegeta led her to a field that was secluded and there couldn't be anyone around for miles. He hopped that once the change started to take effect he could keep his mind enough to keep them in this area. Bulma would never forgive him if she accidentally killed someone in her rage, and he was sure she would actually try to kill him for allowing it. He shook his head, why did he always think of her like that? Why did he seem to want to keep her safe? He shouldn't care!

He growled at the thought, he should hate this woman! He looked at her as she shook. "I feel hot." She whispered as she kneeled on the ground. It would happen any minute, and he shook his head. Of course this had to happen this way. He always found himself in a situation out of his control, but why? First he gets shipped off to learn under Frieza, by a father who claimed to be proud he was so strong. Then, he loses everything! His father, his planet, even his people. It's as if he was destined to always have his destiny viciously ripped from him. He was, by all accounts, the most powerful man alive! And yet he had nothing to show for it! He looked down at Bulma as she hugged herself and resisted the inevitable change. Now he had this, this woman who happened upon him that did nothing but annoy him. She constantly put him on edge with her screeching, and in most cases he wanted to rid himself and the universe of her. But, with all of that, he couldn't help but admire her for following a destiny she wasn't born into, a change in her body and mind that he was sure no other could withstand. He shook his head, any other wouldn't have been worthy of him, but she, she was in a league of her own, just like him. She would become one of the greatest warriors because she had the genius and now the strength to be just that.

He watched as she continued to shake on her knees as she hugged herself tightly. She looked at the sky, and he knew it was time. Vegeta closed his eyes and took a deep breath. He might as well allow the moon to do its job, the further the eclipse progressed, and the stronger the call would be. He would allow himself, this one time, to be over taken by the call. It would be better for both of them if he didn't resist it. Once he cleared his mind, he could feel his blood begin to sing. The heat that started to radiate off his body was searing, and he grinned with the glorious feeling of the anticipation of the fight ahead. He forgot what it was like to allow the change to take effect without any barriers. He opened his eyes just as Bulma stood. She lowered her gaze from the sky and locked eyes with him. The grin she gave him was chilling and wonderful. He couldn't help but grin wider in response.

This would be a battle of strength, will, and wit. He knew, she posses them all. He couldn't help the anticipation that coursed through him. He knew he would be the victor here, there was no question, but this was the first time she would display her full strength to him, and he couldn't help the giddy feeling he felt at the prospect of the possible challenge.

Bulma stretched her body, that grin not leaving her face, and for the first time since they had met, he actually could admit to himself that he was happy that this was dance was going to be with her. "Take all the time you need." He taunted her, "wouldn't want you to lose because you didn't take ample time to prepare." He added. "Oh Vegeta." She laughed. "I have been ready for this for a long time." She said. "At least, I think I have been." She added, taking a moment to think about it. She shrugged and he chuckled. "Anyway, I'm ready when you are." She said as she got into the fighting stance he taught her.

He frowned, she didn't really have time to make any of the moves he taught her actually her own. Which meant he would know them all before she executed them, the good thing was that she didn't remember him teaching them to her, she was using them out of instinct, which he hopped meant that she would be using them on instinct and that would mean that he wouldn't be able to anticipate all her moves. At least he hopped so.

Vegeta mirrored her stance, since it was the one he taught her, and waited. He would allow her to start at her own pace. It was only fair given the handicap. She gave him the same grin, and he smirked back at her, and then used his finger to motion for her to come at him. She took no time in obliging and kicked off the ground with her left foot as she bolted towards him. Vegeta frowned, already knowing what she was going to do and was ready to block her, and then she suddenly appeared behind him, using her elbow to come down on his shoulder. He laughed with delight as he crouched down to swipe her feet out from under her. She didn't suspect this and landed on the ground. He grabbed her ankle and pulled up causing her to be lifted off the ground and landing face first on the ground in front of him.

Bulma turned as he pulled her too him and she kicked him in the knee just as he was about to grab her other foot. He let her go and took a couple steps back, favoring the knee, but only for a second. It hurt more then he thought it would.

She was trying to take advantage of his short handicap and punch him in the face. He blocked it and gave her punch to the ribs. She grunted with the hit, but then turned to kick him in the head, which he blocked. He grabbed her ankle again and pulled her towards him, using his elbow to slam down on her side, sending her to the ground. "I thought you would be more of a challenge then this." He said mockingly, kicking her away from him.

Bulma rolled and turned on her stomach to get up. She just growled at him as she stood glaring murderously at him. If looks could kill he would have been dead. Her expression showed how much that comment actually affected her. Not that she remembered but she was sure that he has always been leaps and bounds ahead of her in strength, which meant that this battle was decided before it had started. She had already known this of course, but she wasn't aware that there was such a gap.

Bulma decided that she would use another tactic. Planting her feet shoulder width apart, she closed her eyes and concentrated on her own power. She imagined a basin, and that it was filling from the bottom up she imagined that this basin would overflow with liquid, and this liquid was her own power that she was filling it with. The more it overflowed, the more she would be able to use it.

Vegeta watched pleased at first that she had gained so much power since her change. He found himself surprised at how much it actually had grown. He was not able to ever see her full power because of the confines of the ship. So this was the first time she was able to actually release it. As her power soured he found himself immensely proud of her. In these last months, she had not only gained in strength, but in skill as well. While he was able to keep her at an arm's length at all times because he was so much stronger then she was, she was still trying to outwit him as they went on.

Vegeta grinned as she continued, watching the blue flames of her energy envelop her like a small flame. It truly was a sight to behold, the blue flames kissing her skin, while her blue hair rustled with the force of it. Her body was straining with the effort of her pushing her power forward.

Taking a deep breath, Bulma finally stopped and stood, her face a mask to all expression. Her eyes blue cold as ice, as she stared at him for a long moment, she finally smirked.

Vegeta couldn't help but marvel at her, not only was she beautiful, especially with the added allure of her energy swaying around her, but her power was well over nine thousand! He was impressed, he couldn't help it.

"Well…" He began, getting into his fighting stance, he would power up as he went, but wanted to make sure he didn't underestimate her. She was being fueled by the moon which magnified her power in its own right, and she was acting on pure primal instinct. The same affects that clouded her mind was going to eventually cloud his mind as much as it already had hers. "Looks like this will be more of a challenge then I thought." He said. And he launched at her.

They flew around the open field in a battle of strength and will. Vegeta tested her strength, allowing her a hit here and there as he took his time to gauge her power while he raised his over time to match. What would be the fun in raising it too much? The fight would be over too quickly, and while he anticipated the end result, the fight in and of itself was just as satisfying.

As time went, and he finally found the perfect place for his strength to match hers, he began to wear her down. He continued to block each blow she delivered, and she became more and more frustrated with the efforts. He wasn't even trying, she knew, but she still had to try. It was her strength that was on the line here, and losing this battle would mean a great deal. While she would not regret this loss, it would still mean he has power over her, and she will continue, for as long as it took, to beat him.

The battle was more satisfying then Vegeta had originally thought. This was his first real fight with a saiyan female, and he was beginning to understand the attraction to the combination of sexual desire and the fight. He was feeling a sort of high with the blutz waves flowing through him and the constant clash of his body against hers, and he couldn't help the feeling of arousal that overcame him.

While he knew she was feeling the same, he wasn't sure she was aware enough to understand what was happening to her. While the battle itself was entertaining, he was ready to move this along in a different direction. He waited for the perfect opportunity, and when she turned to kick him in the mid section, he grabbed her foot and turned her body towards him, then used his hands to force her on her back on the ground.

She grunted with the force but then looked up at him with surprise. He smirked down at her as he pushed the leg he still had in his hand up by the knee and he settled between her legs. He leaned forward, his face inches to hers. She reacted by using her hand to try to punch him. Vegeta was prepared for this and used his hand to push her arm into the ground. Then he kissed her.

Bulma responded immediately. She had been anticipating this since they started their battle, the eclipse magnifying her arousal. But she wasn't ready to give up, not yet. She used her free hand to wrap it around his body; Vegeta gave a growl of approval. She twisted her fingers in his hair, and Vegeta shuddered.

Once she had the best opportunity, she grabbed a handful of his hair and pulled. Vegeta's body had no choice but to follow the direction of his head, and she used that as an opportunity to put them in the opposite position. She rolled on top of him, giving him a grin of victory, to which he chuckled at. Let her believe she was victorious for now; there was no harm in it. She leaned down and began kissing behind his ear.

Vegeta grabbed her hips in both hands, and re-positioned her, Bulma couldn't help but grind into him as a result of the movement, and Vegeta grazed his teeth along her neck in response. Bulma trailed her kisses up his chin, and then to his face, kissing his mouth with as much force and passion as he had just moments before.

Vegeta had had enough, and flipped her over roughly causing her to yelp in surprise. He chuckled at her, and took no time in removing his armor and gloves. If he was going to be touching her, he actually wanted to feel her.

Bulma use the time he spent riding him of his constricting cloths, to gain the upper hand. Once he discarded them, she jumped at him. He landed on his back with a grunt, but immediately turned her so that they would roll. She tried to move but he pinned her down.

"Face it, I won." He said, with a glint in his eye, and amusement in his voice. She snarled at him, and he only laughed harder. "There is always next time." He taunted huskily. Bulma glared at him, but he ignored her glare and decided that they had had enough of the fore play.

He used both hands to grab the neck of her shirt and pulled, ripping it to tatters with little effort. Bulma gasped with surprise, but then gasped for another reason once Vegeta took her left breast into his mouth, and then she was beaten. She no longer fought him to try to be the victor; instead she arched into him and wrapped her legs around his body.

Vegeta lifted some and did the same to the scrub pants she wore, and she moved her legs so that he could remove them completely. Once done, she raised up to push his shirt over his head and kissed her way up his chest as she did so, ending at his neck which she latched onto using her teeth to run up his neck and over his chin only to claim his mouth once more. Vegeta continued to kiss her as they both worked to remove his pants.

She was shaking now, he could feel it as he kissed her, and as her hands fumbled to help him remove the last barrier between them. He stopped her hands, and pushed her back to the ground, and her shivers were worsening. He realized that she was in some way, clearer now then when they had first started this battle of dominance, but she didn't say anything, only tried to pull him closer to her.

Vegeta looked up at the moon, the eclipse was three quarters complete, and once it was, so would this battle. He knew, and he wouldn't be able to stop now, not even if he wanted too. Vegeta finished removing his pants, and crawling over her. She clutched to him like a life line, her tail wrapping around his thigh. He trailed his tongue over her shoulder and used his hands to pull her left knee up so he could get better access to her body, his tail wrapping around her ankle tightly.

Bulma shuddered violently as he positioned himself. "Please." She whispered as she clutched to him. Vegeta frowned down at her, "shut up." He said, kissing her roughly. He pulled her body down, and positioned himself more securely.

She whimpered with his kiss. Vegeta shuddered with anticipation. He had wanted her before, but this feeling of need was so overwhelming, and he took a second to gather himself. He rested his forehead on her shoulder breathing heavily. The moon was influencing him, and he was trying to stay as aware as possible, he wanted this to be his choice, not an impulse brought on by the moon.

Finally feeling a bit clearer, he pulled her closer and entered her swiftly. Bulma arched her back in a feral scream and tightened her arms and legs around him as if her life depended on it. He trailed small bites and nips down her neck and shoulder, using his hands to keep her firmly in place as he began to move. With each of her whimpers and cry's he couldn't help but pick up the pace.

With every thrust and movement the feeling of pleasure magnified. Their bodies moving to the rhythm that Vegeta created, and Bulma cried with each and every move he made. Vegeta couldn't remember a time of such pleasure, not even with all the other skilled woman that he had been with, none compared to the feeling of this woman in his arms. He couldn't help but move with her, or force another one of those cries from her that he could only describe as a sirens song. He craved to hear it again and again. So with every cry and whimper she made, he couldn't help but increase his speed and force to make them louder and more frequent.

Vegeta leaned over her body and kissed her, swallowing her cries, and feeling as if he would never tire of those sounds. Bulma's fingers dug into his skin, and he welcomed the pain they brought. As if it was his only link to reality because his hold on it was slipping with each moment that passed, each thrust he delivered.

Bulma's body shuddered violently, and Vegeta tilted for a different angle and she sucked in a breath. Her climax ripped through her body as if it was a living thing, and Vegeta clamped down on her shoulder in a bite that filled his mouth with her blood. He growled with the taste of it, his pace set with such speed and force that pushed Bulma into the ground causing her to cry out for a different reason, and she sank her teeth into his should in turn, causing him to growl louder. The action forced his climax in a violent shudder, and he groaned as he emptied himself into her. Bulma, finding some clarity, decided to take this opportunity to show that although he won this battle, she was still very much in control. She moved her body, prolonging his orgasm to the max, and his body continued to shudder violently as she refused to remove her teeth from his shoulder.

They were both wrapped around each other breathing heavily for several moments as they came down from their high, and Vegeta for the first time in his life, could care less what happened. He just lay there, content with his life, and his purpose. Bulma was licking and sucking on the wound she had given him and he tightened his arms around her, doing her the same courtesy.

Neither one said anything as the moved and adjusted their position so that they were comfortably lying together on the ground. Bulma sighed, and closed her eyes, content and satisfied. After a short moment he heard the soft sounds of her breathing, and moved the hair from her neck kissing her there.

He then looked up at the moon. The eclipse had completed and was now ending. It had another three quarters to go before the planet was no longer blocking the light from the sun. Vegeta sighed, feeling it was ok to do so with no one around, and looked down at the woman clutched to him. Things would be different now. He wasn't sure what to do with that information and he frowned. She willing gave herself to him when she didn't know anything about him; she didn't even know anything about herself for that matter. It was true that her actions were influenced by the blutz waves, but there had to be a foundation in order for this to actually have affected them they way it had.

He rubbed his face, and wondered what would happen now. He knew very little about this process, and he wasn't sure he really wanted to know what it entailed. Not to mention that the cloudiness that he was feeling was fading, he was becoming more and more frustrated with himself and her the more time went on.

He looked down at her one more time, before the fog cleared and allowed the thought that he was satisfied with her. She was everything he could have hoped for and more. she was a genius, and beautiful, as well as an heir to an empire on earth that could have rivaled his own due to the fact that the earth was not allied with any other planets. When comparing, her father's empire was just as magnificent. And now, she was undeniably saiyan. He couldn't have done better picking a full blooded saiyan. She would make him proud, he was sure. So he kissed her once on the lips, and then down her cheek, and to her neck, kissing the wound he gave her that would be gone by the time she woke.

Then he carefully removed her from his body and dressed. He flew to the ship, gathered what cloths he could find for her, and placed them in a pile next to her. Then he took off in the opposite direction of the ship. He still needed answers, and he had unfinished business to attend to.

* * *

AN: OMG! What is happening? Hehe, just wait and see. All questions will be answered soon. And as the for the rest of our friends, they will be showing up in due time. Things are about to get really interesting!

Also, I am trying to be consistent here, so if you see inconsistencies, please let me know so that I can correct them right away! Please and thank you!


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